The Meaning of Friendship
by ApostolicShadowNinjaGirl
Summary: After being invited to a festival where things go drasticly wrong, team Gan Gan Galaxy has to heal their wounds. However the people who dealt them the blow won't leave it at that. While runninig for their lives they learn the meaning of true friendship.
1. The Festival

**Okay this is my first story ever! XD I'm currently working on (or thinking of working on) two other stories. I almost didn't put this one on. Inspiration for this came from several places but some of the more responsible things are: BlackWolfoftheTurks fanfic Ordeal of Darkness and two Dark Tsubasa amvs one of Animal I have become and another was Time of dying (still dark Tsubasa amvs) I listened to the song I'm Still Here while writing this one, and watched several shows. **

**Disclaimer: Believe it or not I do not own these characters or this show, I mean it is called a FANFICTION ya know!**

Tsubasa walked calmly into the city, looking every now and then at eagle, who flew high above. He glanced at a nearby brick wall and saw another advertisement for a festival that was being held halfway across the country that weekend. Apparently it was supposed to be a big deal; the event of the season is what people were saying. At the prices tickets for it were selling at, it had better be something special.

Eagle screeched at him and he glanced up, shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand. The sides of his mouth turned up a little as he continued on his way. He was going to the post office to see if he had any mail; he tried to do this once a week but didn't always make it.

Glancing at the people around him he wondered what their daily lives consisted of. They had their jobs to go to every day, their homes to go to, and their families to see every day. He hadn't had a family for years, and no real home. The closest thing to family he had was eagle. _"I don't know what I would do without you eagle" _Tsubasa thought. His job was stable enough, but when he was on duty he never knew where he would have to go or what he would have to do. All of his free time was spent in training; at least it had been until the world championships. Now he had some friends to spend time with occasionally.

When he arrived at the post office he saw yet another poster for the festival, and more people talking about it. He shook his head slightly and headed inside the large building. Tsubasa wasn't really sure why he went to the post office; he rarely ever got any mail. So it was a bit of a surprise when, after he asked if he had any mail, he had one letter waiting for him. He thanked the cashier and took the letter.

Sitting on a bench he opened the letter and read: Dear Mr. Otori, We would be much obliged if you, along with your fellow team members, would appear for a question and answer session at the Summer Festival this weekend. You would be appearing as a member of team Gan Gan Galaxy. If you accept we will pay the entry fee and any additional activities you wish to participate in (i.e. rides, games, shows, food, etc.). If you agree to come, be at the airport at 4:00 on Friday afternoon. We will have a representative meet you there. We would be extremely grateful to you and your fellow team members if you would agree to come. Sincerely, West City Recreational committee.

Eagle landed on the bench beside him and Tsubasa glanced over at him "Well what do you think eagle?" he asked. His one sided conversation with eagle was interrupted by his cell phones ring. He reached for it and flipped it open. "Hello?" he said into the phone.

"Hey Tsubasa." Madokas voice said from the other side of the line.

Tsubasa opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Ginkgas voice saying "Hi!"

Again before Tsubasa could say anything Masamunes voice interrupted saying "Hey shut up Gingka I'm gonna say Hi first! "Hi Tsubasa!"

Then Yu's voice said "Hi Tsubasa!"

"You two need to shut up and quit fighting, at least for a minute! Anyway Tsubasa did you get a letter from the West City Recreational Committee?"

"Yes." Tsubasa said. "Are all of you planning to go?"

"Dad says its okay for us to do it if we want to soo…

Gingka, Yu, and Masamune shouted "Yes!" at the same time. Tsubasa jerked the phone away from his head and winced because it was so loud. He gingerly put the phone back to his ear only to take it away again because Madoka was yelling loudly at the three boys to shut up.

It went on like that for a few minutes until Tsubasa decided to interrupt the little fight. "Okay so I suppose I will see all of you on Friday then."

"Yep, see you Tsubasa!" Yu said. And then Tsubasa hung up. He looked at eagle then reached over and fingered some of his feathers.

He stood while eagle watched him. "It looks like I'm going on a trip, huh?" He sighed to eagle. Eagle took off for the skies as Tsubasa began walking back to his current temporary home to begin getting his things ready.

Friday evening arrived and the airport was a beehive of activity. Apparently lots of people were heading to West City for the festival. Masamune looked left and right gripping his backpack straps a little tighter. He was completely lost. He stood up on his tiptoes and tried to catch sight of one of the others. He gave a victory whoop when he saw the top of Tsubasas head. Masamune ran towards them as quickly as he could; he didn't want to lose him again. He had almost caught up to the rest of them when his foot caught on a brick that was sticking just above all the rest. He went flying through the air and landed right in the middle of all his friends. Madoka said "Wow Masamune you're actually on time? Anyway where is this representative they were talking about?"

Just after she said that a woman's voice said "Hello I am Megumi Takahashi I am here from the West City Recreational Committee." She shook Gingkas hand "You must be Gingka Hagane," then she shook Madokas hand "You're Madoka, the team technician." She turned to Tsubasa and said "You are Tsubasa Otori?" Tsubasa nodded and shook her hand. She bent over and shook Yus hand "Hello Yu." Then she looked down and visibly tried not to laugh as she bent over Masamune and said "and you must be Masamune Kadoya."

Masamune jumped up and said "Yep that's me; I'm the best member on this team!"

"Whaaattt!" Gingka shouted "That's not true!"

"Anyways," Megumi said "Here are your plane tickets, and when we get there you can pick a hotel of your choice for two nights. If you wish to stay longer you will have to pay your own way. These tickets are round trip so you will not need to buy another to come back. I believe that is all and our plane is now boarding. Are you all ready to go?"

"Yeah!" Masamune and Gingka shouted.

"Uhh, where are we Ginky?" Yu grumbled from the back seat.

"I, uh, I'm not sure." Gingka mumbled.

"What!" Masamune shouted.

"So you got us lost?" Madoka said.

"Its not my fault this stupid map doesn't read right!" Gingka said angrily from the front seat. They had decided in the plane that they would stay at the Green Pearl Inn and Hot Springs since it was luxurious and fairly close to where the festival would be.

Megumi told them that a limousine would pick them up at 10:00 the next day and that they would be able to hang out at the festival until 12:55 when they would meet her at the Ferris wheel so she could take them to their session. However they had to provide their own transportation except for when they were going to the festival. They thought over a few options and decided in the end to rent a car and have Tsubasa drive.

When they got off the plane Megumi gave them the money for the car and left them to go their way. Since Gingka had claimed the front seat it was up to him to give directions. Now Gingka had gotten them lost and they had no idea where to go. Gingka turned the map this way and that way to no avail.

Finally Madoka said too sweetly "Tsubasa would you pull over for a minute?"

"Um okay" Tsubasa pulled the car over to the side of the road and Madoka said "Thanks Tsubasa" she opened the door and said angrily "come here Gingka." Gingka gulped then obeyed. Everyone watched as she smacked him on the side of his head then snatched the map from his hands. Masamune and Yu snickered as Gingka and Madoka walked back to the car. This time Madoka sat in the front seat and gave directions while Gingka sat in the back and pouted.

After their little driving fiasco and airplane trip, the whole gang was a little worn and very much hungry so they decided they would eat first. When they got to the small restaurant in the front of the Inn, they were seated quickly, and received their order speedily. Like always dinner with Gingka and Masamune was an adventure; each trying to out eat the other, stuffing their face as if their stomachs were black holes.

After dinner they all headed to the hot springs and had a nice soak. Then they all went to their rooms so that they could get a good night's sleep and be prepared for the next days "gig" as they had taken to calling it.

When Gingka got to his room he started to get ready for bed when a phone call interrupted him. "Hiya whats up?" A strange deep voice said "Gingka Hagane there will be no escape for you in the end but if you would like to survive another day I suggest you don't go to the session tomorrow." There was an audible click on the other end. "Hello? Who is this? Hello? Hello?" Gingka questioned. "Well that was weird." He shrugged and went to bed.

The next morning they all met for breakfast as they had planned the night before. "Okay so am I the only one who got a weird phone call last night, or did all of you get one too?" Yu questioned.

"Hey I got one too!" Masamune said. One by one they all agreed and compared what the strange person had said. In the end they realized that except for their names every message said the exact same thing. "I think that this is probably just a bad prank." Madoka said, but still, she couldn't shake a bad feeling.

"Even so," Tsubasa said "We should probably tell Gingka's dad and Megumi." Madoka got out her laptop and pulled up her webcam. Luckily Ryo was on and they instantly connected. "Hello the immor-ahh!" "Yeah yeah director" Hikaru said "So hi guys what's up?" "Hi Hikaru, we just wanted to tell you we all got death threats last night." "What!" shouted Ryo. "Yeah we just figured we should tell you. We all think it's just a bad joke though." "Okay, if that's all, and you think it's okay to go ahead and go." Ryo said. "And be sure to have fun" Hikaru added. Then they disconnected.

When Megumi and the limo arrived they all piled into the back and relaxed. Gingka was the one to bring up the mysterious phone calls "Hey Megumi, last night some freak called us and told us we would die today." Megumi choked on air "W-what?"

"Yeah" said Yu "it was kinda scary at first, but I know it was just some dumb weirdo."

"Mm hmm just some random crazy playing a prank." said Masamune.

Megumi stopped coughing and relaxed "Oh good" she said "but just to be safe I'll have headquarters step up security and have people patrol all possible areas where anyone could attack you from during your session." she then took out her cell phone and started doing just that.

"Well here we are! Now remember , by the Ferris wheel at 12:55." Megumi said happily. "Here are your special passes that let you do everything without having to pay."

"Does that mean eating too?" asked Masamune.

"Yes it does include food. Now off you all go, be sure to have fun and don't worry about anything!" They all got out and the limo drove off leaving them all alone with the park. They had no problem getting in the park with their special tickets.

Once in they each got a program and decided what to do. Madoka saw they were holding a special conference on the construction of Beyblades and decided to go to that. Masamune decided to enter the hamburger eating contest, while Gingka saw that they were having a mini beyblade tournament. Yu wanted to ride every ride in the park and asked Tsubasa to go with him. Tsubasa looked up at eagle for a moment then decided to join Yu.

Just before everyone left Tsubasa shouted "Hey nobody get lost okay!"

"Waddya mean get lost?" Gingka asked.

"You remember that time in America don't you? When we first arrived?"

"Ummm…. Oh yeah! But that was Masamunes fault for leaving us like that, this is different."

"It's a smaller area but not really that different, and remember to be on time!"

"Of course!"

Tsubasa sighed and rubbed his temples _'sometimes those two just…'_" Come on Tsubasa lets go!" Yu interrupted his thoughts as he ran ahead. Tsubasa followed, at a slower pace than Yu.

By 12:50 they had all gathered at the Ferris wheel. Gingka had, of course, won the little tournament by a long shot. Masamune won a silver hamburger trophy for getting second in the eating contest. Yu and Tsubasa rode every ride after Tsubasa won a few games for Yu. Of course later Yu decided that it had been a bad idea to eat before going on the barrel ride, as he almost vomited and Tsubasa actually did vomit. Madoka was very happy with the conference she went to, and talked about it almost non-stop.

"I can't believe that peewee little girl ate more burgers than me!" Masamune shouted.

"How many did she eat?" asked Gingka

"One hundred and two."

"How many did you eat?"

"One hundred"

"So Tsubasa, you feeling any better?" Yu asked.

"Oh yeah I'm fine now."

"Huh? What was wrong with Tsubasa?" Madoka asked.

Yu snickered and said "He puked on the barrel ride."

Madoka looked at Tsubasa for a moment and said "Are you sure you're okay?"

"…. Yeah I'm sure."

"Okay everyone ready to get on stage?" Megumi seemingly appeared out of nowhere and asked. After receiving a nod or yes from everyone she continued "So what you will do is this: when you hear a voice announce team Gan Gan Galaxy I will cue you to go on stage in a specific order. There will be a table on stage that has plates with your names on them on it. Stand in front of the place with your name in front of it while he introduces each of you. After you've all been introduced you will go sit in the chair behind your name plate, and answer any questions asked to the best of your ability. If you don't want to answer a question you can say no comment okay? Great, it's almost time to go on."

Eagle watched Tsubasa standing behind a stage of sorts. He flew high above watching the crowd swarming below him, all seeming to face the stage. He screeched at Tsubasa, who looked up and smiled. Eagle began to circle when he noticed a shinny looking object sort of sticking out of one of the nearby buildings. He had a wary feeling and flew towards it to investigate.

It was almost time. He had done many missions before, after all he was a mercenary assassin, but this was different. He had never killed kids before and never people who were so famous. He picked up his custom made rifle, making sure the muffler (also custom made) was in place, and aimed it at Gingka, whom he planned to kill first.

Just as he began to squeeze the trigger an eagle hit his gun with its talons, not quick enough to stop the shot, only change the aim a little. Unfortunately though, it did knock off the muffler announcing he was here and telling where he was. The crowd instantly reacted, he could hear them shifting in their chairs and their startled gasps. With any luck he might have still hit one of the Bladers on stage. He snatched his gun from the slight grip eagle had on it, but was forced to leave his muffle. He could hear the security running towards the room so he jumped out the window to the car waiting below and made his escape. He would get them next time, what would one more day anyway?

"Get those men moving, now!" shouted security chief Hiroshi. He had been warned that there was a chance of something like this happening, and had even stepped up the security. Unfortunately it appeared it had all been for pretty much nothing.

An Assassin had still gotten in and he didn't know if any of those kids down there might have gotten hit, or worse kicked the bucket already. There was also the possibility of a spectator having gotten it; either case brought only a bad scenario for him to mind. He doubted he would lose his job over it though.

While he sat musing over his thought he watched some of his men run back out of the room while others attempted a foolish jump from the window but the rest already knew that the man was long gone. He had alerted the front gate, but he couldn't help but doubt that they would be able to stop the man. To have gotten a gun in here and to get past his extra security he had to have had a brilliant plan.

At that moment one of his men ran up and said "Sir take a look at this." Hiroshi looked at the thing that his second hand man held in his gloved hand. It seemed to be some sort of muffler.

"Get that thing to the lab pronto!"

"Yes sir"

This was going to be a long, long night.

**So what did you think huh? I hope you liked it. R&R and have a blessed day! :)**


	2. The Hospital

**So yeah, this is the next chapter of my story and I hope its good. Its been almost finished for a week but I ran out of inspiration for the end and left it for a while. the characters are probably a bit OOC. Anyway here ya go.**

Gingka held his head in his hands and sighed. He knew life could really suck and throw some tough curve balls, but this wasn't something he had ever expected to happen.

Lots of people had tried to kill them with battling; knocking them unconscious, pushing them to their knees, and putting them in the hospital for weeks, but this? This was just completely different. Someone had actually tried to assassinate them, underhandedly, and cruelly, and it just seemed plain evil.

Actually in a strange sort of way it was cool, being important enough that a real live **Assassin** would come after them. But no matter how cool it could seem at times, it was always terrifying. They'd all begun to have nightmares about being shot in their sleep, or killed in another form, possibly more brutally than that.

He lifted his head and glanced around. All of the others seemed to be asleep; he didn't blame them, it had been a long hard day. He stood up and walked to the window.

A hospital wasn't the most pleasant place to spend the night but he would spend several nights in a place like this for any of his friends. Of course it didn't hurt that the police had said they couldn't stay at their hotel, just in case. Even now there was a police officer guarding the other side of the door to this waiting room, and he could see a few patrolling the street down below, making sure no one suspicious could enter without their knowing.

At first Masamune had complained when they were told they had to stay here, but he was just told it was safer for them all to stay together, and he didn't have a choice, and after a while he finally just fell asleep. Yu hadn't been too happy either, but in the end they didn't mind too much and settled down, after eating a boatload of hospital food. Really Gingka didn't understand why everyone said it was so gross, and Masamune agreed with him.

The streets outside were bright, and he noticed a small group of teens, jumping, dancing, walking, running, yelling, and talking down below as they passed the window. Last night had been just like that for them. They had had lots of fun and played around jovially. _"And now look at us."_ He thought. Life really could change drastically in just a split second. They'd been happy and unknowing too, but now one of them was fighting for their life in a hospital.

The TV blared behind him and he heard whatever soap opera that had been on go off and the News go on. It was the twelve o'clock news. No doubt the big story would be the same as it had been since one o'clock. "Since our little episode."

**WMW**

Flashback

A shot rang out across the area and all the team members rushed towards the front of the stage very nervous. Several "call 911"s were heard across the area as the crowd stirred, obviously freaked out.

"Is everyone okay!" Gingka asked. He heard a thump as he turned towards the others, and knew that it was not good news.

Before he had even completely turned around he could see the blood spattered on the table and the wall behind it.

Madoka screamed and Yu almost fell off the stage when they realized that Tsubasa had been shot.

They all ran to his side afraid that maybe he was dead, but someone from the crowd had just jumped up on the stage and shouted "No stop, don't touch him!" They all gave him a strange look and he explained "If he is still alive your touching him could kill him."

"How would you know that?" Yu yelled

"Because I am a doctor." he explained calmly.

They all stood back and watched as he carefully checked to see if Tsubasa was still alive. The sound of sirens rushing quickly towards them made Gingka want to throw up.

The doctor stood up and shook his head. "What? What's wrong?" Yu cried.

"He is alive but he isn't in good shape. He might or might not die, I just don't know." Madoka started to cry softly and Yu looked like he might have been shot himself. Masamune looked completely shocked and unbelieving, and Gingka was sure he looked much the same.

It was at that moment the paramedics from the ambulance ran up with a stretcher, picking it up onto the stage instead of the slower method of using the stairs. With careful, trained hands they picked up Tsubasa, who was still bleeding heavily, and put him on the stretcher, strapping him in. Yu insisted on going in the ambulance with Tsubasa, and Gingka did too, but only won this battle because he was team leader.

Once on the way the paramedics began trying to stop the blood loss, and Gingka couldn't help but wonder how such a small looking wound could bleed so much.

He was quickly snapped out of his thoughts when the paramedics started acting a bit panicky and put a strange thing over Tsubasas mouth that looked sort of like one of those air pumpy thingies that were used to keep a fire alive. Then he realized that they must be using it to pump air into his lungs, in other words they were breathing for him!

Yus small hand touched his arm and Gingka realized that right now what he needed to do was to try and keep calm for Yus sake. The small boys eyes were filled with fear, anyone could see that. "Is Tsubasa gonna be all right Gingky?" Yu looked like he might cry.

Now Gingka realized that he was just as terrified as Yu, but said "I'm sure he will Yu." He quickly added a silent prayer. Then all of a sudden they were at the hospital and shuffled into a waiting room with the others.

Flashback end

**MWM**

Yu blinked his eyes against the harsh morning sun as he woke groggily from his sleep. He wasn't as bad as Masamune and Gingka when it came to getting up in the morning, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it either.

Reclosing his eyes he reached for the alarm clock and feeling around felt nothing but…. shoulder? That wasn't right. He reopened his eyes to see that the shoulder belonged to Masamune who was next to him. "But why is Masamumu next to me anyway?" Yu wondered "and where is that irritating beeping coming from. Then he remembered everything from the previous day and shot out of his strange position in the uncomfortable chair, and into a very cramped standing position.

The loud beeping was coming from the room Tsubasa was in and it was getting quicker and quicker. Madoka was staring anxiously at the door, while neither Masamune nor Gingka stirred. Nurses and doctors rushed past them, in and out, in and out, making Yu feel even more nervous.

A particularly pissed looking doctor slammed the door on his way into the room, knocking Masamune out of his strange perch in the chair next to the door, and onto the floor waking him up. He groggily looked around and said "Wass goinnn oon?" drool slid down his chin, forming a puddle on the floor.

"Were in the hospital don't you remember?" Madoka shouted angrily.

Masamune jumped up, suddenly wide awake, and said "Say what? Oh yeah." He finished his sentence in a small and sheepish voice.

They stood like that for a second before another nurse rushed past. But sadly for that nurse things were not all smooth sailing, for as she ran past Masamune she slipped in the puddle of drool. This prompted a chain reaction because as she went down she accidently hit Masamune, who tripped forward over her stumbling a few steps before hitting a shelf of books and other things, knocking it over and sending several books flying. One of these books flew through the air until it landed on a table hitting a plate and throwing a spoon into the air. That spoon then proceeded to fly until it hit the blinds string pull which then swung with the perfect trajectory and the perfect amount of force to hit Gingkas snot bubble, popping it and shocking him awake.

This resulted in quite a bit of laughter from the downed nurse and a few of her coworkers that had gathered due to the loud noises. It lightened the tension enough that the team actually forgot where they were and what had happened for long enough to get a little laughter in.

This moment of bliss was interrupted by a loud long and very final sounding beep coming from Tsubasas room. Instantly everyone was serious again and back to rushing in and out of the room. The long beep suddenly stopped and the Gan Gan Galaxy gang thought that maybe their hearts stopped with it, Yu felt he needed to see what was going on so he ran to the door and peeked in.

There was a loud cracking sort of sound coming from the room, and Yu, though he could barely see through the doctors and nurses, could see Tsubasas whole body jump like he'd been shocked. He squeezed his eyes shut and began to quietly sob as he heard it happen again, then again. He would always, always hate hospitals.

Everyone was relieved when the steady beeping of Tsubasas heart resumed, but poor Yu could not stop his tears.

**WMW**

An hour later a doctor walked into the room. He looked at their anxious faces for a moment and then walked over to them. "Hello I am Dr. Mitorashi. Are you team Gan Gan Galaxy?"

"Yes" Madoka answered.

"I hope you are all doing well. I am the doctor in charge of Tsubasa Otori."

"Is he okay?" Madoka (who seems to be the official spokesperson of the group) asked.

"He is now."

"Oh good."

"Last night we removed the bullet from his body. The bullet entered very near his heart, and, as you all probably know, it was touch and go for a long while. We had to use a defibrillator on him a few times because his heart stopped. We also had to give him a liter of blood because he lost so much."

"Oh my gosh!"

"Can we see him now?" Yu asked nervously.

"We are moving him to a recovery room now, you can see him there."A relieved sigh came from the whole group. "He won't wake up for a while though."

"What? Why not?"

"For his own sake we put him in a drug induced coma, to reduce his pain and to prevent him from causing himself any more harm."

**MWM**

"You're telling me that you failed your mission?" a venomous sounding voice whispered dangerously, the owners face hidden inside the folds of a dark robes hood.

"I haven't failed yet; this is only a temporary setback, that's all." The deep voice of the assassin answered from the other side of the dark alley.

"That better be all." The whisperer hissed "Or your life will be the payment for your failure."

**WMW**

There was nothing but black all around him, surrounding him, crushing him; it felt almost as if the life was being drained from his body. With every passing moment his pain and fear increased. As time moved on he realized that he hurt more in his chest than any other part of him, so whatever was making him hurt had to be around there. He tried to move his hand and find what hurt so much, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't move it. Then all sensation faded once more.

**MWM**

Madoka pushed the nasty food around her plate; she hated the rubber food in the hospital. So far she had had three dinners here and not enjoyed any of them. Tonight's menu was rubber hamburger with rubber rice and a soda. Right now she really wished that she could go down to one of the small restaurants a few blocks away and eat some real food.

"Oh well, I guess I don't really feel like eating anyway." She said quietly. She glanced over at Yu who was facing away from her and towards the window; from the way his body shook every now and then she guessed he was crying again, though he would never admit it.

Masamune and Gingka were having another eating contest, since there wasn't anything else to do while locked in a hospital room.

Looking at Tsubasa she thought about how the morning before his heart had stopped and had been revived. Yu had watched this as it happened, and he hadn't seemed quite the same since. It was obvious that he wouldn't feel any better until Tsubasa was awake. 'Please wake up soon Tsubasa.' She pleaded silently.

**WMW**

This time when the pain came it was much sharper than the last time, but the darkness wasn't so heavy. He wondered if maybe he could open his eyes this time, so he gave it a shot. No not yet, he couldn't open them yet but it didn't feel like it would be long.

Suddenly he realized he could hear something; it seemed to be a faint, but constant, beeping. Instead of continuing to focus on opening his eyes he tried to listen to the beep. As the beep got louder the heaviness and darkness began to fade, but the pain increased.

In an instant the beep was loud and the pain sharper than it had ever been, and a gasp of pain and surprise escaped him. It had been like he was in a tunnel, and was just shot out of it.

With effort he opened his eyes and looked around him: it was dark but not like when he was unconscious. He could see blinking lights and the outline of a door, not to mention city lights coming through the window.

With these few lights he recognized the shapes of his friends all around the room. He then realized that he was in a hospital, and memories came back with a jolt. That had to be why he was in so much pain. 'I was shot?' he thought. Even after he realized what happened he couldn't help but be surprised the team was here. Sure they'd visited him after his breakdown with the dark power but not like this. 'I won't get used to it' he decided, and looked at the window wondering how long he had been in here for and if Eagle was okay.

**MWM**

Yu woke up from another uncomfortable sleep in this miserable hospital. He yawned and stretched his arms in an attempt to get the cramps out of them like he had the last two mornings. Yus new little morning routine was interrupted by a very sore sounding voice saying "good morning Yu."

Yu froze. 'That voice! Is it possible?' "Ts-Tsubasa!" he cried turning around. When he saw Tsubasas golden eyes staring at him he almost yelled with joy and ran over, just barely keeping himself from jumping on him.

After all the noise Yu made everyone else woke up. Masamune and Gingka were both grumbling and moaning, Masamune saw Yu and figured that he had lost it. Madoka on the other hand, immediately realized that Tsubasa must have woken up, and ran over to see.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Gingka asked.

"Yeah what are you guys doing?" added Masamune

Madoka turned and scowled at them "You idiots! Can't you see that Tsubasas awake?"

"What? Really?" Gingka ran over and took a look while Masamune followed.

Tsubasa smiled at them weakly and said "Yeah I'm awake." Then he turned to Madoka and said "How long was I out for?"

"Almost four days now."

"Oh"

"I thought you were gonna die Tsubasa!" cried Yu, close to tears again.

"Was it really that bad?"

"Yeah, a couple times you really did almost die." said Masamune.

"But hey, at least you're better now." Gingka added.

Everyone couldn't help but feel relieved; no matter what happened next everything would be okay now. Or at least, that's what they thought.

**So was it okay or good or terrible, what did you think? Ive decided that I like the idea of advancing Yu and Tsubasas relationship (not in the Yaoi way, bleck) because I like the idea of them being close, in the Anime they do seem to be together alot. It'll probably be a while before I update again, because I plan to start another story and next Wendsday I'm leaving on a seventeen day vacation, and there isn't exactly internet in the middle of the ocean.**


	3. More problems

**I am soooooo sorry I haven't updated for so long. I've felt rather uninspired since I got back from my vacation, but I'm pleased with the way this chapter has turned out.**

**Anyway I don't own Beyblade, and if I did Tsubasa would be the star.**

* * *

><p>It had been three days since Tsubasa woke up. He had gotten much better, so much in fact that he could walk without any help, at least for a minute or two. And with help he could walk for about five minutes. The doctors were surprised to see this, but also pleased.<p>

They had just eaten lunch (still the nasty rubber food) and were now playing board games. Tsubasa and Madoka were playing chess. So far they had played ten games since he had woken up, and Tsubasa had won them all. Gingka, Masamune and Yu were playing a much simpler game: checkers. So far they had played 32 times, or more actually 32 rounds since this was 1 vs. 1, and then the winner vs. the one who didn't play. So far Gingka had won 10, Masamune had won 10, and Yu had won 12.

"Ha! I win again Masamumu!"

"No fair, you cheated Yu!"

"Oh Yeah? THEN PROVE IT!"

"I don't need l prove anything! Besides everyone knows you're a cheater!"

"Oh yeah!"

"YEAH!"

"YEAH?"

"YEAH!"

"YEAH!"

As they continued Madoka listened, silently fuming. Finally she slammed her fist on the table, sending chess pieces flying and startling Tsubasa. "That's enough! I know you're all idiots so just shut up already! I mean we are in a hospital, you should at least try to be respectful, and keep it down!"

"But Madoka," Gingka pointed out, "you're being just as loud as they are."

Madokas face turned bright red "Shut up!" she snapped, turning to Gingka.

He gulped and stood against the wall, seeming to try to blend in. At this point a random nurse walked in and said "Please try and keep it down in here. We have patients trying to recover and you're not helping." then she left.

Madoka sighed and sat back down, while Tsubasa just looked at her. Yu and Masamune had pretty much forgotten their fight after the little confrontation with Madoka and the nurse. Gingka remained plastered on the wall. An awkward silence settled over the group for a moment, until Tsubasa coughed a couple times (not an unusual thing after being shot in the chest).

"I'm bored! When are we gonna leave this stupid hospital!" Yu whined. He jumped up from his spot on the floor and ran to the window. Looking out he noticed something "Hey you guys, I think something's wrong."

Masamune ran to the window and shoved Yu out of the way. Down on the street a crowd was gathering around something. "Huh! It's that police man, the one that was guarding this side of the street! It looks like he's been-"

Masamune was interrupted when the police man who had been guarding the door ran in and shouted "Get down!" while yanking Masamune back. A bullet that had been heading directly for Masamune head planted itself into the ceiling.

Everyone quickly between the man and flattened their selves against the floor, except Tsubasa who just laid flat on his bed. After a few moments had passed sirens could be heard blaring.

Masamune stared up at the small bullet hole in the ceiling, slowly realizing that he had almost died.

**MWM**

Ryo Hagane sighed and looked up from the pile of paperwork he had been working on. He vaguely heard a phone ringing in Hikaris office; probably something that would land him with more paperwork.

Using his feet he pushed his swivel chair away from his desk and turned in circles. He was interrupted when Hikari burst into his office "Sir we have a problem!"

"What kind of problem?"

"Another attempt has been made on team Gan Gan Galaxy!"

"What! Are they okay?"

"This time none of them were hurt, but Masamune barely missed being shot in his head."

"Did they catch the culprit?"

"No sir."

"It looks like we're going to have to do it then."

Hikari nodded "I'll get everything ready director."

**WMW**

People ran to and fro in the police department of West City; they seemed to be having a busy day. So far team Gan Gan Galaxy had been sitting in the police department, just waiting, for two long hours.

Gingka looked at the others, and realized that they looked pretty pitiful. Madoka looked the best out of them; she only looked worried. Yu had been crying again (though he wouldn't admit it), so his eyes were swollen and his nose was red. Tsubasa was in a wheelchair and had a bandage around his chest (it was mostly covered by his shirt). And Masamune was so shook up after what happened he wasn't even complaining.

Gingka began to wonder what would happen to them now. It was clear that someone was determined to kill them, all of them. The police hadn't told them anything except they only had one small clue from the first attempt, and no new clues or evidence from this recent attempt. He hoped they'd be okay.

MWM

Hikari stood behind the director and watched as he called up Madoka. All the preparations had been made, and now all that was left to do was set it in motion.

She listened as Ryo explained that them: The plan was to get the team to a sort of safe house located in the Sierra Nevada. They would be smuggled into an airplane heading for California and then be flown in a smaller charter plane to the mountain. Only Ryo, the higher ups, and the pilot of the plane would know the exact mountain and location.

She hoped they would catch the "bad guys" soon.

**WMW**

Madoka glanced around her trying not to look nervous. The police had said to act natural. They'd also told them to say that they were a couple of friends going on a trip to California, and to make up a different name in case someone asked. They were also supposed to say Tsubasa had had surgery on his right leg, and wasn't allowed to walk yet.

Madoka had chosen the name Miku, Gingka had chosen the name Ando, and Tsubasa picked Arashi. Yu decided to be "funny" and called himself Doji, and to challenge Yu Masamune went with Ryuuga.

They boarded the plane and Madoka finally began to settle down. Until...

"Hi, is anyone sitting here?" Madokas made a squeaking sound as she jumped and turned. A girl with blue hair to the middle of her back with light green bangs, wearing a black shirt and a white knee length skirt sat next to her, she seemed to be around 18.

"Oh I'm sorry, did I startle you?"

"Just a little, but I'm okay."

"Oh ok. I'm Diana by the way."

"Nice to meet you, I'm M-Miku." she managed to catch herself.

Gingka walked up to take his seat on her other side and decided to introduce himself "Hey Ma-Miku who's this?"

"Hi, um, Ando, this is Diana."

"Nice to meet you Ando," she said extending her hand "I'm Diana."

Gingka shook her hand then took his seat.

Masamune and Yu made sure to make a commotion about getting Tsubasa out of wheelchair and into the seat, embarrassing Tsubasa (who could easily move from chair to chair) greatly.

Madoka slid down in her chair and groaned.

"You with them?" Diana asked.

"I'm afraid so."

"I can see why you'd be embarrassed by them; they seem a bit... overzealous."

"Well, our friend had some leg surgery done a little while back, and they just want to make sure he doesn't get hurt anymore."

"I understand."

"Hey MMMMM-iku, who ya talkin to?" Masamune looked over her chair and asked.

"Oh hi, uh, Ryuuga this is Diana, Diana, Ryuga."

"Hi there Ryuuga."

"Hey don't forget about me!" Yu whined standing on his tiptoes in his chair so he could see too.

"Um this is Doji, and the one that was in the wheelchair is Arashi."

"It's nice to meet you all. So why are you going to America?"

"We're going to see all the sights in California."

"Really? Well make sure you go skiing and go to the beach before you leave. And you have to see the Hollywood sign and the Golden Gate Bridge." Diana talked about things to do in California in detail for a while, with obvious enthusiasm.

"So where are you from and why are you going to California?" Madoka asked.

"Well I'm going home actually. I was on a visit to a friend of mine in Japan, so now I'm on my way back. I actually live in Chicago, but my grandmother lives in Malibu, so I'm visiting her first."

"That's nice of you."

They continued to chat until they all finally fell asleep.

MWM

Tsubasa looked out the window at the darkness bellow him. He knew the ocean was down there somewhere, but it was too dark to see it.

"Tsubasa?" a voice whispered.

Tsubasa turned his head to see Yu looking at him anxiously. It seemed he wasn't the only one awake at this late hour.

"Yeah Yu?" Tsubasa whispered back.

"Are...um... are you okay?"

Tsubasa smiled down at Yu. "Yes, I'm fine." he said. He didn't really feel too good actually, but he wouldn't tell Yu that.

"Oh that's good." Yu said and looked genuinely relieved.

After a moment Yu whispered "Tsubasa?"

"Yes Yu?" Tsubasa whispered back.

"Are we going to be okay?"

Tsubasa sighed "I hope so Yu, I hope so."

After their small exchange Yu snuggled as close to Tsubasa as he could and soon fell asleep. Tsubasa found the feeling unfamiliar, but very comfortable, and soon was asleep as well.

**WMW**

When they awoke the next morning they were landing in San Francisco. Diana was already awake and had been looking out the window. "Oh you're awake. Good morning Miku. You and your friends better buckle up were about to land."

After they had landed and disembarked, they said their goodbyes to their new friend and she left. Madoka looked around "Gingkas dad said that the pilot would find us."

Just as she said that a young man walked up and said "I would assume you guys are Gan Gan Galaxy. I'm your pilot, Mark. Follow me."

They made their way through the airport until they came to a small airplane with blue streaks on both sides. "This is my plane," Mark said, his eyes full of pride "her name's Bullet."

Madoka found it a bit funny that he wore a blue shirt and that had the exact same blue as was on the plane. Mark helped Madoka up into the craft first, while Masamune and Gingka fought over who would have the other front seat. But before either of them could get in the plane Tsubasa had climbed up and taken it, while Mark folded up the wheelchair and stuck it with the other luggage. Yu laughed while Gingka and Masamune climbed dejectedly into the back seat. Mark then helped Yu up and then they took off.

**MWM**

The plane had just landed after an uneventful flight and Mark was beginning to unload.

Tsubasa insisted on walking as much as he could: he really hated that wheelchair, even if it was necessary.

The first thing they noticed was that there were a lot of mountains surrounding them. No matter which way you looked a mountain loomed there; none of which had any civilized looking places, not even cabins, at least none that they could see.

Looking at his more immediate surroundings he noticed they seemed to be on top of building on a small airplane landing strip that could also accommodate helicopters. There was a small building (more like a door with walls) nearby.

Suddenly the door flew open and a middle aged woman ran out. "Welcome, welcome everybody." she said. "I am Katharine but you can call me Kat."

"Hi Kat, I'm Madoka."

"I'm Masamune, the number one blader!"

"Hey! That's not true! I'm Gingka and I'm the greatest blader ever!"

"No I am!"

"No I am!"

"I'm Yu and all those two are are the world's greatest idiot, and the number one dummy." Yu snickered.

"I'm Tsubasa." Tsubasa said bowing politely, and trying to keep back a cough.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Kat said, quickly flying into mother mode, despite Gingka Masamune and Yus arguing. "You shouldn't be wasting your energy trying to walk, you need to save it so you can heal faster!" she said practically forcing him down into the recently unloaded wheelchair.

"Mom relax, he's fine I'm sure." Mark said.

"Wait! She's you're mom!" Masamune said.

"Yep."

"Oh, um, okay."

They made their way across the platform and opened the door that led to the stairs. At this point Kat finally let Tsubasa get out of his wheelchair and walk down the stairs while she took his wheelchair, and Mark, Masamune and Gingka took their luggage.

Madoka was the first down the stairs, so she opened the door. She stepped inside the door into a good sized lobby. Right in front of her was what looked like a check in desk with a sign over it that read "Mountainside Inn". There was a breakfast/lounge area next to the check in, that had floor to ceiling windows showing a gorgeous view. On the other side there was an elevator and a glass door that led to a balcony. Overall it seemed like a nice place.

"Hang on a sec," Yu said "is this place a hotel?"

"Yeah." nodded Kat "I own this hotel; have for all of Marks life. He was born here and I plan to die here. And while you're here you have to pretend like you're just normal guests, nothing more, nothing less, got it?"

All of team Gan Gan Galaxy nodded.

"Now come on" Mark said "I have something cool I wanna show you."

They followed Mark to the elevator where he pressed the down button.

"Hey if there was an elevator, why didn't we just use that?" Gingka asked.

Mark shrugged "Guess we just didn't think about it."

'Oh great! This guy is just as bad as them.' Madoka thought looking at Masamune and Gingka.

When the elevator doors opened everyone was a bit surprised. "Hey" Yu said "if this place is that old then how can you have stuff like cool glass elevators?"

"Well I don't really think 22 is that old." Mark pouted "But to answer your question, five years ago we had this place remodeled with all the money we'd saved up. Basically gave the place a complete overhaul."

Once inside the glass elevator, Madoka realized you could see all the way down. It was a long way, and it frightened her a bit.

Just as the doors were about to close, Kat shoved Tsubasa's wheelchair in with them, before heading to the desk.

Looking out the sides of the elevator as it went down you could see balconies protruding from the sides of the stone building.

They stopped on the third floor and Mark walked them to their rooms. Tsubasa and Yu were put in room 304, while Masamune, Gingka, and Madoka were put in adjoining room 306. Once inside the rooms Mark left to do something or another and left them all alone.

**MWM**

Ryo Hagane turned the TV on and the news sprang to life. He absentmindedly listened to the voice of the lady newscaster. "-still searching for the missing twins. If you see either of these children" a picture of a blond boy with a small ponytail and a small blond haired girl flashed on the screen **(1)** "please notify the authorities immediately. In other news a man's body was pulled from West River this morning. The police believe that he was killed somewhere within the city, and then his body was dumped near Osaka bridge where it was washed three miles downstream. The cause of his death has not been released yet."

The phone rang suddenly, grabbing Ryo's attention. "Hello?" he answered.

"What!"

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><p><strong>Darknessrules: Thank you for your comments, and sorry I took so long to update.<strong>

**A small tribute to the Kagamine twins. Not my favorite Vocaloids, but still…**

**Do you think that I'm making these chapters too long, or making too much happen in them? Anyway that's it for this time.**


	4. Warning

**So here we are again! I updated pretty quickly. Sadly I didn't make this chapter as long as I should have, I didn't even make my quota of 2,000 words! Oh well, It seemed like a good place to stop so, yeah, that's what I did. Oh and thanks to all reviewers! You really inspire me! The more reviews I get the faster I write, so be sure to review!**

**I still don't own this.**

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><p>Chief Hiroshi sighed as he hung up the phone. Sometimes he hated his job. Really the director of the Japanese branch of the WBBA was excitable, though it might have had something to do with the fact his sons life was in danger. But still the man wouldn't calm down and really he didn't see anything to get so excited over, plus his patience level was very miniscule. At any rate explaining the situation to Ryo Hagane had reminded him of the time his older brother had scraped a cheese grater across his forehead.<p>

**MWM**

_Flashback_

The phone rang for a minute before Ryo Hagane answered "Hello?"

He had already spoken with the man's secretary and so he plunged on "This is Chief Hiroshi I'm working the Gan Gan Galaxy case, and something has happened."

"What!"

"Calm down, it's not bad, at least, not really."

"What do you mean?"

"By a major stroke of luck we came up with a suspect."

"Huh? A suspect?"

"Yes a suspect. Hi-

"Who? Who?"

'Shut up and I'll tell you.' "It is a man named Greg **(1)** Drake."

"That name doesn't sound very-"

Ignoring Ryos interruption the Chief continued "He came from the US originally and was suspected of several murders there, though he was never convicted."

"You arrested him right?"

"I'm getting to that." Chief Hiroshi said annoyed "We didn't arrest him b-"

"What? Why not!"

At this point he made a slight growling sound as he said "Because the man is dead!"

"…Dead?"

"Murdered actually."

"So then they're safe? They can come back?"

"No. I doubt very much that they're safe. I believe that he was hired to kill your son and his friends, and the real one behind these attempted murders is still out there."

"Why do you think that he was hired?"

"Back in America it was the popular theory with the police force that he hired himself out to assassinate people. O-"

"Why did they think that?"

"It doesn't really matter why!" he finally let the annoyance this man was causing, and the late nights he'd been spending show a little, he took a deep breath "Because most of the people killed didn't have much connection to him and after the deaths he slowly began gaining money in his bank account."

"Oh. So have you, um, arrested him yet?"

"No-"

"Why not!"

He let out a long breath trying not to yell "I already told you! The man is dead!" 'How did this man get to be director of the WBBA?'

"Oh, right."

_Flashback End_

**WMW**

That's about where the conversation ended, and Chief Hiroshi was glad; he really couldn't take many more interruptions before he exploded.

Of course he hadn't told the director everything. The manner of the man's death was strange to say the least. At 8 o'clock that morning they received a report from a kid that there was a dead person in the lake.

One of his officers (one who was originally from the US) had only told him about Drake the night before, after he recognized the muffler. By a stroke of major luck he had worked one of the cases with Drake as the main suspect, and easily recognized the custom design.

When he sent out orders to apprehend the suspect he'd instantly gotten information back. Unfortunately it wasn't what he'd wanted to hear: The man had been pulled out of the West River that very morning.

He had obviously been in the river since at least the night before but it was clear he had not drowned. The cause of death was obvious: a hole in his chest right where his heart was-or should be. There were several theories on what had made the hole but most had been ruled out. At the moment the most likely theory was that a beyblade had been shot through the man.

He never thought someone could actually shoot a beyblade through a person though. He knew that they were very powerful, but he'd never seen one that could be launched strong enough to actually rip through a person.

**MWM**

"I'm bored!" Yu said.

They were standing on the large main balcony where they had been most of the day. It was their second day here, and they had to spend the whole time in the hotel. It didn't help that they had been watching Mark fly people off to the tourist attractions all morning.

"Yeah, I wanna go do something!" Masamune said.

"Sorry guys, Gingkas dad said that we can't leave the hotel, it could be dangerous." Madoka said.

"Come on! It couldn't be that bad! I mean the state of California is bigger than all of Japan so there's no way they could find us here!" Gingka said.

"I know, and I agree, but orders are orders!"

After almost a minute the silence was broken "Ahhh! I wish the day we could leave would come already! It's nice enough here but I'm sooooo bored!" Masamune complained.

Tsubasa closed his eyes and took a deep breath (something that was getting easier). It was beautiful up here. He could understand how the others were beginning to feel bored and restless, but this was just his speed.

He opened his eyes and looked around him. The mountains were beautiful, each a different shape and beautiful fading shades of purple and blue as far as the eye could see.

He turned his eyes back to the deck he stood on. Of course there was the others fighting and complaining about being bored. He didn't really mind their antics anymore; he'd gotten used to it. There were a few chairs and tables sitting around too. Then his attention was drawn to a young woman with long light blue hair in a white dress, she seemed to be the only other guest that hadn't left the hotel. When he realized she was staring at him and each of the others in turn he felt a bit uncomfortable.

"Hey guys?" He said quietly.

"Huh? Oh, yes Tsubasa?" Madoka (who apparently was the only one who heard him) answered.

"Oh did you say something Tsubasa?" Gingka said.

"That woman has been staring at us for a while now."

"What?" Masamune said.

"Really?" Yu said looking over at her "Weird."

This time she was looking up at the sky with a sad look in her eyes.

Just when they were about to start up again her quiet voice interrupted them "Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?"

"Huh?" Yu said.

She ignored him and kept going "Or listened to the rain, slapping on the ground?"

"What's she talking about?" Madoka whispered.

Tsubasa shrugged.

"Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight? Or gazed at the sun, fading into the night? You'd better slow down, don't dance so fast; time is short, the music won't last."

Now the strange girl had their full attention. Even Masamune and Gingka were listening to her; they figured it was at least something to do.

"Do you run through each day, on the fly? When you ask "how are you", do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed, with the next hundred chores, running through your head? You'd better slow down, don't dance so fast. Time is short. The music won't last. Ever told your child, "We'll do it tomorrow?" and in your haste, not see his sorrow?"

Then she stood up strait and turned to look at them "Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die, cause you never had time, to call and say hi? You'd better slow down, don't dance so fast. Time is short. The music won't last… When you run so fast, to get somewhere, you miss half the fun, of getting there. When you worry and hurry through your day, it's like an unopened gift, thrown away…"

She walked past them and paused at the door. "Life is not a race. Do take it slower. Hear the music, before the song, is over."**(2)** Then she opened the door and left.

For a minute no one said anything and then Yu broke the silence "Well that was weird."

"Yeah." Masamune said.

'I wonder what she meant.' Tsubasa thought.

**WMW**

It was dinner time that night and they we're eating with Kat and Mark in their small kitchen. The food was good: Kat was a good cook.

"So, today we met this weird girl." Madoka said.

"Weird girl?" Mark said, tapping his chin with his fork "Oh! You must mean Violet."

"Violet?" Tsubasa questioned.

"Mmm" Kat nodded swallowing a mouthful of food "She's the only one you could've seen around here today anyway. I have to admit, she is a bit strange."

"Who is she exactly?" Madoka asked.

"Violet Regina: she's been coming here with her parents once a year for several years, at least until around two years ago when her parents died. She's twenty-five and she has some type of cancer. She's not given us any real details, but she couldn't afford treatment, and didn't really want any either. She asked me if she could come here and die. Why, did she say something to you?"

"Well she said some sort of weird poem." Gingka said.

"A poem? What kind?" Mark asked.

"It seemed kind of sad." Tsubasa said.

"Well you should listen to whatever she said."

"Why?" Madoka asked.

"Because sometimes when she looks at someone she can see their future, but she will only use poems to give you hints and/or advice about it. Which one of you did she look at before telling you?" said Kat.

"She actually looked at all of us." Tsubasa said.

"Oh, well then there's no way to tell which of you that future belonged to. Of course it could belong to all of you I guess."

"Oh please, like anyone could really see the future." Madoka said.

"I'm just sayin. Anyway even if it doesn't end up having anything to do with you, her poems usually have good advice, so you should listen anyway."

"This pizza is really good!" Masamune changed the subject unintentionally.

"Thanks! I made it myself!" Kat said.

**MWM**

'If you want something done right, then you have to do it yourself'. Thought a dark figure as it made its way up a mountain.

All of a sudden a lone wolf jumped out of the trees and ran towards the cloaked figure. Without a moments' hesitation, the figure pulled a gun and shot the wolf. "You should pick on someone you can handle, dumb mutt." The voice hissed, as the person paused and looked at the poor dying creature writhing on the ground at their feet, before heading up the mountain.

A pair of blue eyes looked up at the stone building outlined by the moons glow. "I'm coming for you, team Gan Gan Galaxy."

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><p><strong>Comment replies:<strong>

**Yuu101cutie: Thank you very much for your complement!**

**Jazzmonkey: Yeah! I love cliffies. I'm glad you liked it. ^^**

**Darknessrules: You're very welcome.**

**Rebecca: I don't mind that you wrote it in a language I can't understand, as long as you're not secretly insulting me. ;D I plan to learn German next year anyway. And thank you!**

**PrincessZaraStar: I'm glad you like my small attempts at humor that were thrown in there, I'm not really very good at that sort of thing. Thank you very much!**

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><p><strong> I named his Greg as a kind of tribute to my cousin who is barely better than a criminal himself. XD<strong>

**2.I didn't write this poem. I got it in an email, and it was inspiring and seemed to fit the mood of what is coming up.**

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><p><strong>So not a lot happened in this chapter, but the next one will make up for it. I'm pretty sure it will anyway, and it shouldn't be too long before it's up! Anyway I'll see you next chapter!<strong>


	5. Night of Fear

**I've been meaning to say that "hi"= talking and 'hi'= thinking.**

**Sorry it took so long to update, but last week I had camp, and this week and next week I have to work at two other camps, and before that I was just being lazy. Anyways it's thanks to my newest review that I finished this story now. Like I've said before, every review I get inspires me, so if you want me to update quickly REVIEW!**

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><p>It was a little past midnight. Everyone was sleeping in their rooms, no one was awake, and all was still. Well not quite all.<p>

'I'm here.' A morbid smile spread across the dark figures face. 'Now,' standing outside rooms 304, and 306, the persons eyes flickered back and forth 'who will I play with tonight?'

Already knowing the smartest choice the figure smiled and made its way down the hall, about to put their devious plan into action.

**MWM**

Madoka slowly opened her eyes. Something felt… wrong. A shiver ran down her spine, and she sat up looking around. Gingka and Masamune were both still sound asleep, drooling and mumbling unintelligible words. She looked over at the balcony, and then past it to the large full moon, that seemed to float above the dark shadows (the mountains were those shadows).

Looking the other way she saw that the door seemed to be open a crack and a draft was coming in. She found that strange since when she had came in the temperature in the room and in the hall was the same. 'Maybe they turn the heater off in the hallways at night' she thought.

Standing up she slipped on her house shoes and robe before tip toeing to the door and peeking out. Looking out she saw that the emergency door for this floor was open. 'That's weird'

Taking the key to the room with her, she crept out into the hallway and quietly shut the door behind her. 'I wonder if I should tell the others' she thought slowly making her way towards the open door.

A gust of wind blew through the door and rushed down the hall, making her shiver. The mountain air was crisp and cool.

She reached the door and was about to pull it shut when she noticed something sitting on the platform outside the door. Stepping outside-and trying not to look down-she took a closer look. It seemed to be a small snow globe with a little girl running through snow inside. Madoka wondered who put it out here and why. Taking the snow globe with her she turned to go inside but was stopped by a strange hissing voice calling her name "Madokaa!"

"Hello? Who's there?" She began to feel very nervous and almost wanted to run to her room, but her curiosity outweighed her fear. She grabbed the ladder and began to climb up.

By the time Madoka reached the top she felt rather tired; three floors were quite a bit to climb on a ladder, not to mention dizzying when at such a height. Standing on the landing pad she looked around. "Hello? Is anybody up here?"

She heard a small bit of sound on the platform to her right and headed in that direction. As she climbed another ladder (shorter this time) she got a bad feeling. With every rung she passed her nerves also climbed higher and higher, and she began to consider turning back and running to her bed and hiding under the covers until morning.

'Don't be silly!' she thought to herself 'It's nothing! It's just my imagination.' She reached the top and stood. The first thing she saw was a figure standing about ten feet away from her facing away. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust enough to see that it was a girl in a long plain white nightgown with long light blue hair.

"Oh, it's just you, um Violet right?" Madoka said walking towards her.

Violet slowly turned around and Madoka froze all her terror coming back tenfold as she noticed the blood around Violets feet and the blood staining her night gown. The source of all that blood was a stiletto knife in her stomach.

Violets eyes had a slightly dazed look in them and she began to fall. Snapping out of her frozen fear Madoka dropped the snow globe and lurched forward catching Violet mid fall. She sunk to her knees holding Violets head in her lap.

"What happened?" Madoka asked panicking.

"I was stabbed." Violet said her quiet voice even quieter than usual.

"Who did it?"

"Someone wearing a black cloak."

Madoka took a closer look at the young woman's wound and realized just how dire it probably was.

"Just hang on! I'll get some help or something, it's going to be alright!" she said with tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"No, don't. It's too late, and I would die anyway."

"But…"

"At least this is a quicker and less painful way to go." Violet said her voice growing weaker as well as her body. "Be careful, Madoka. You're in danger too now. Good luck." After that Violet closed her eyes and just breathed the crisp mountain air for the last few moments of her life.

Madoka stared in horror at the woman who had been so beautiful just hours ago when she had last seen her staring out a window. Now she was lying dead in her lap with blood flooding the area around her and staining Madokas slippers and robe.

Madoka knew she had to do something, but she was frozen in terror. What had Violet meant, just now and earlier? Who had killed her, and why? And what had she meant that she was in danger now?

She was startled out of these thoughts by a low and menacing laugh. Startled Madoka looked up. Somebody stood above her, black robes and shadows concealing their face and figure.

"Wh-who are you?" Madoka asked frantically pulling herself out from under Violets body, and attempting to stand.

"Me?" The voice whispered. "Why I'm the one who killed that woman, and I'm the one who's going to kill you."

Madoka stood shocked for what felt like the millionth time that night. This person was planning to kill her? Why? Then she realized that this had to be the person who had tried to kill Tsubasa and Masamune.

She backed up, making her way towards the ladder. "W-Why do you want to kill m-me?"

The person shrugged, not bothering to push their cloaks hood out of their face. "What difference would it make?"

Madoka didn't know what to say. She stood and just stared until the person started moving towards her. Adrenaline rushed through Madokas body and she darted towards the ladder.

'I have to get out of here! I have to get the others!' She ignored the pain in her hands as she rushed down occasionally slipping.

After reaching the third floor her panic decreased, thinking that she would be fine now since the others were very close.

'I don't remember closing the door.' She thought as she reached for the handle. Hearing a sound she looked up and saw her pursuer sliding down the ladder without using the rungs.

They were still too late she thought as she turned the handle. Or tried to anyway.

Shaking the handle she realized she was locked out. The person was almost at the second floor now.

Banging on the door she screamed "Please let me in! Please, Please! Can anyone hear me!"

"Too late. The voice hissed, right next to her ear.

She screamed and whipped around, ending up with a knife still dripping with Violets blood pointing at her neck.

"Oh now, now, Madoka, don't be afraid." The voice mocked her, removing the blade from her neck and sliding a gloved finger over it, catching a good bit of blood.

"But-but you're g-gonna kill me!" she squeaked.

The cloaked person looked thoughtfully towards the sky "Yes I suppose you should be afraid then… or maybe-

Madoka used the person's momentary distraction to shove them and run for the ladder again. She ran down the ladder and pulled the door to the fourth floors handle down. The door opened, and relieved she ran in.

**WMW**

'Perfect!' The shadowy figure thought, watching Madoka run into the building on the next floor down. 'Run Madoka, run! Be afraid!'

Laughing evilly they jumped down to the next floor and straightened up, looking at the door. "Your pleasant life has finished team Gan Gan Galaxy. Tonight, the fun begins!"

Laughing once more they pulled the door open and walked calmly in.

**MWM**

Madoka stopped running for a moment, trying to catch her breath. Glancing over her shoulder she realized the person didn't seem to be following her.

Standing up she looked in the mirror hanging to her right. She hadn't realized she'd started crying. Wiping the tears from her eyes and face she made an attempt to calm herself and think rationally. Right now all she could think was 'run!' but she knew that would just get her in more trouble.

After a few minutes her brain cleared enough for her to realize that she was on the fourth floor, the floor with all the amenities on it. The gym was on her left, a small cafeteria was beyond that, she also knew of a game room, and an indoor swimming pool.

The elevator and stairs was on the opposite end of the hallway which suddenly felt miles away. Still attempting to clear her brain she decided she would at least feel safer if she had something to defend herself with. With this thought in mind she walked cautiously into the gym.

**WMW**

Crouching in the shadows the person chuckled to themselves. "Haha! This is perfect! Everything is going according to my plan." They stood up and made their way to the gym door to watch the show.

**MWM**

Once inside the gym Madoka looked for a potential weapon. A hand weight? No good. Rubber mat? That wouldn't work either. There had to be something in here that would work!

"Aha!" she exclaimed as she spotted a barbell. She couldn't lift one, but she could take the weights off and attempt to use it as a club or something.

She had just finished preparing her weapon and was about to go back into the hall when an evil laughing came from that direction. She felt the blood run out of her face as the robed figure stepped into the moonlight emitted through the window.

"Miss me?" It whispered in a cruel and sarcastic way.

Madoka held up her pole ready to defend herself when the person in the robes pulled a beyblade launcher from amidst its many folds and a beyblade. Putting it in launch position they aimed it right at her and before she could react they had launched it and her pole was split into two pieces.

She screamed and ran towards the door adjoining to the swimming pool room. Luckily this door was unlocked and she ran right in.

The room was completely dark and she felt afraid. Just as she began to calm down the lights inside the pool came on accompanied by that person's creepy laugh. The first thing she saw was a man's body cut into pieces floating in the pool, surrounded by his blood.

She ran out of the room screaming and crying. She didn't even know where she was going anymore; she just had to get out of there.

**WMW**

Yu slid out of his bed and made his way towards the door. He was hungry and he was going down to the fourth floor to get a snack.

**MWM**

Madoka ran to the elevator and to her horror realized that the button had been smashed. There was no way for her to use the elevator. She ran to the stairs instead and to her extreme horror she realized that five steps had been completely crushed. She was caught; all escapes had been shut off.

WMW

Yu yawned and sleepily rubbed his eyes. The view through the glass elevator was just impressive at night as the moon illuminated bits and parts that were surrounded by shadows. However Yu was not in the mood to be impressed. He turned around as the elevator dinging open and was startled by Madoka who was standing in front of the elevator facing some person in a black robe.

**MWM**

'DRAT!' thought the robed person. That brat would ruin everything if they weren't careful.

**MWM**

Madoka heard the sound of elevator doors sliding open behind her and quickly turned around. "Yu!"

"What are you doing Madoka?"

Before she was able to respond she felt a sharp pain in her side then went flying into the elevator. Sitting up and looking into the hall she saw that the masked person had just kicked her into the elevator.

They put their foot back onto the ground and stomped into the elevator. They pushed a button and the elevator started moving for just a moment before they stopped it between floors. Then they turned back to them Madoka was terrified, and Yu was confused.

"What's going on Madoka?"

"T-this per-person killed V-violet."

"What!"

"And now, he wants to k-kill me-e too!"

"Oh your wrong there." The person whispered tilting their face forward, a cruel looking smile was visible in the elevators bright light. For a moment Madoka thought she caught a glimpse of hair.

"I don't just want to kill you; I am going to kill you. All of you."

Yu jumped into a fighting sort of stance and the robed person laughed. "Do you really think that will help anything?" they asked turning and slamming their foot into the side of Yu's head, making him hit the wall and then lay on the floor dazed. Then they pressed the button to go up to the landing pad, and the elevator started moving.

"Stupid brat! You ruined everything! I was having so much fun! But you wasted all my hard work!" they yanked a mannequins head covered in red paint out of their robe and hurled it at the ground "It was a lot of freakin hard work cutting that thing to pieces! Do you know how resistant mannequins can be to being cut up? You're both mean; spoiling my fun like that." It was pretty obvious during their rant that the person was having a hard time keeping their voice in a whisper, and their voice squeaked several times.

Madoka slowly realized that she had only actually seen one dead person that night, that the one in the pool was just a mutated mannequin.

Yu began to shake his head in an attempt to clear it of the static that seemed to be settled in his brain. He looked up and saw the robed person pull a knife out of their robe before suddenly grabbing Madoka and putting the knife to her neck.

Madoka felt afraid for a moment before it all seemed to melt away, like a weight being lifted from her chest, and she began to laugh. It was quiet at first but it got louder.

Madoka kept laughing not caring about what was going on around her.

"Shut up, brat!" the person said turning her around and then slapping her.

Madoka's laughing stopped, and she took a deep breath, before attempting to look at her captor. Just as she was about to see the persons face the elevator doors opened.

"Ahh, we're here." They whispered, and then hit Madoka on the head, knocking her out.

Yu stared at them, sliding out of the elevator and attempting to run.

"Stop that little man!" the person said before hitting Yu too.

Picking them both up and attaching them to ropes they had previously connected and lowered them to the ground, before climbing down their own rope and joining them on the ground where they placed them on a waiting sled and took off in the night.

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><p><strong>Just so you people know I had an extremely hard time not accidentally revealing gender in this chapter. I know Madoka called the person a 'he' once but that doesn't actually mean anything since she was talking about them, and when people don't know or have a gender they usually refer to it as a he.<strong>

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><p><strong>Review replies:<strong>

**PrincessZaraStar: XD I'm glad you like it, and thanks for the compliment!**

**Darknessrules: You're welcome. Don't worry, I don't swear in real life and I won't in my FFs. I find swearing pretty pointless and they never add anything to the quality of a story, and as a person who doesn't enjoy reading swears in stories I would like to please those like me. Plus if anyone really wants an obscenity in there they can add one in their mind.**

**Jazzmonkey: Thank you!**

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><p><strong>I don't know when the next chapter will be up, and this chapter is not so happy, and they will probably not have much lightheartedness in them from now till the end, but we'll see. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and remember that the more reviews I get the faster I will update!<strong>


	6. Aftershock

Okay so it's up! My longest chapter yet! Yay! It would've been up sooner but I went to camp for a week then I was a counselor at another camp for two weeks, so I've been busy. Oh and my birthday is this Saturday so I can't wait! Plus now I'll get my drivers permit! Yay! And oh yeah, **READ THE NOTE AT THE END! DO IT**! Oh and don't forget to review! :D

**Anyways I don't own beyblade, blah, blah, blah.**

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><p>Chief Hiroshi sighed as he reexamined the files for this case. It had quickly become his case. The most recent part might not have happened in his territory but it was his case, his idea to send them to that place, and now he felt it was his fault that two of them had disappeared.<p>

First Tsubasa Otori, the third member of the world renowned Japanese beyblading team Gan Gan Galaxy, had been shot at a special festival where the team was making an appearance. The attack had appeared to be an assassination attempt on the entire team, but it had been fouled up by an eagle that had been seen with Mr. Otori several times. The boy survived with no permanent injury, and had only stayed in the hospital for seven days.

Second, on the seventh day another attack was made in the same style as the first, this time no one was injured but they were forced to move the team from the hospital before the doctors approved and move them to a safe house located in the Sierra Nevada's the next day. Unfortunately it seemed the real culprit wasn't this assassin that had attempted to kill the team, because that morning they had found the man's body floating in West River.

Third, Madoka the tech. and Yu Tendo the substitute member disappeared on their second night at the Inn. But this time there were clues everywhere. First was the dead body of Violet Regina who had been staying at the hotel, she had been stabbed once in her abdomen and bled to death. The weapon had been removed, and nearby was a broken snow globe. Another disturbing clue was a mutilated mannequin floating in the pool with red paint and the pool lights on for effect. It looked disturbingly like a dismembered human being, and anyone in a hurry or panicked wouldn't have realized that it wasn't a real human. In addition several steps of the stairs were destroyed and the elevator button was also made unusable. In the gym room they only found a broken barbell bar that had all the weights removed. Speculation suggested it could have been used as a weapon and was split in half during a fight. After more searching they also found several traps that hadn't been triggered; smoke bombs, quiet creepy sounding music that could be activated by a remote they found in the elevator, and after a few more steps they found a skeleton that was also covered in red paint designed to look like blood. All of these were in the game room. In the kitchen a human brain-a real human brain-was on a plate also surrounded by red paint, and on another plate was a human heart that was covered in red paint like everything else. Overall the place looked like it was some sort of freak show haunted mansion, and it was probably enough to completely terrify anyone who wasn't being chased by a killer. The probable thing was that the person who hired and killed Greg Drake was also the one who set up these traps and killed Miss Regina, and the poor devil that the brain and heart belonged to, if the person hadn't just stole those from somewhere.

The American police department that had handled the situation had sent him all the files and awaited further instruction on what they wanted done with the remaining team members, since they were still the Japanese police forces problem.

The fourth and newest development was that he needed to figure out where to move them to. He'd been told that Tsubasa Otori's wound had become infected and over night he had developed a bad fever so he couldn't be moved far. They had already tried to use a solitary, quiet and not well known place to hide them already and it had obviously failed. So now he was going to give it a shot without the WBBAs director's input or agreement.

He had made the arrangements to have the three boys stay in Los Angeles California and even got the LAPD to guard them, since the police in America were involved now too.

Now he had to call director Ryo Hagane explain what all had happened in the past twenty four hours. He sighed and picked up the phone dreading the coming conversation.

**MWM**

That stupid little brat Yu had ruined lots of hard work. It wasn't fair! After they had gotten there and worked so hard to set the traps, and even used that girl that just happened to be on the roof. The goal had been to terrify Madoka before kidnapping her, so her plan still worked but they could have scared her so much more. Oh well they had just had to sacrifice that extra bit of fun to kidnap Yu too. Besides it's not like they had had a choice.

**WMW**

Masamune sighed and looked at the ceiling. Nothing was going right. Madoka and Yu were missing and they had no idea where they went or who took them there, and Tsubasa was sick for the second time in a single month!

It had only been the night before (or that morning, both really) that Madoka and Yu had been kidnapped and the woman named Violet was murdered. At first they had been afraid that Tsubasa was missing too, since he didn't come out of his room.

_Flashback_

Masamune rolled over in his sleep and landed hard on the floor. Yawning he sat up and looked around. The morning light was shining onto the floor and giving a nice effect to the mountains outside. Gingka was snoring loudly with one arm over his face and the other on the floor. Looking to Madokas bed he realized that neither she nor her robe and slippers were there.

Reaching over he lightly grabbed Gingkas wrist smiling mischievously before yanking him off the bed.

"Uhf!" Gingka hit the floor and woke up "What the-Masamune!"

"Morning Gingka!"

"What'd you do that for!"

"I had to wake you up somehow, and this way was fun!"

"Why you- Hey where's Madoka?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot! She's not here."

"I can see that."

After checking around the room, and the bathroom they decided that she must have went to breakfast and left them. They thought that was unusual but just shrugged it off.

After their little search they got dressed and went to the breakfast area.

"Good morning boys!" Kat said happily.

"Good morning Kat, have you seen Madoka around?" Gingka asked.

"No. In fact I haven't seen any of your friends since last night. Now that I think of it, it's weird since one of your friends is an early riser, and Madoka doesn't seem like the type to sleep in."

"No she's not. You haven't seen Tsubasa either? He didn't get up early? And not Yu either?"

"No, is something wrong?"

"I hope not. Come on Masamune; let's go to Yu and Tsubasa's room."

"Ok."

"Wait I'll go with you." Kat said sitting her plate of muffins **(1)** down.

After they got to their room they knocked and called to them but had no answer. After doing that for several minutes they decided that this wasn't going anywhere. Kat was about to offer to open the door with her keys but was interrupted by a scream coming from upstairs.

After reaching the landing deck they found that one of the maids was the source of the scream. She had been on her way to clean the helicopter when she found Violets body on the ground. The first person to reach the scene had been Mark, and luckily he had had the presence of mind to keep all of the guests and staff-besides the maid-out of the area.

"Mom!"

"Mark!" Kat pushed her way through the growing crowd and then up the ladder to where Mark was, assuming that whatever the problem was, was up there. "What's going on?" She reached the top and froze at what she saw.

Masamune and Gingka followed her up the ladder and peered over the floor trying to see past her. "Why did you stop?" Gingka asked. Then he saw something lying on the ground, something that eerily resembled a person.

Kat rushed over to the lump and bent over it. "Is…is she…?"

"Yeah." Mark said hanging his head. "I was the first one up here, so I checked. After that I just tried to keep everyone down there so they wouldn't see her."

"Oh. Who discovered her?"

"Sierra did. She was on her way to clean the helicopter when she found her. She's the one who screamed. She's calling the police now."

"She didn't tell anyone down there did she?"

"She said she wouldn't."

"Okay good." By now Gingka and Masamune were making their way over.

"Hey whats-" Masamune started to say but stopped suddenly when he got a good look at what was on the ground. The sight of Violets body drenched in blood on the ground scared him.

Gingka ran over and bent down, getting her blood on his pants. "Is she okay?"

"No. She's dead." Mark said sadly. He'd not been particularly close to her, but she had become a friend after seeing her so for so many years.

"D-Dead?" Gingka said staring at Mark.

"Yeah…" He offered his hand to Gingka to help him up. Gingka accepted and stood up, now noticing the blood on the front of Marks pants.

"I called the police." A girl's nervous voice said from behind them, she seemed to have just climbed up the ladder. "I…I used the phone in the reception room. All the people down there were asking me what happened, but, but I did what you said and didn't tell them anything. They're starting to leave now."

"And the police?"

"Oh, they're on their way. They said they would be here in about an hour."

"Good. Will all of you help me make sure no one gets up here?" Everyone nodded.

A few minutes later an ashen faced elderly lady came up the stairs. "Ethel? What's wrong?"

"Sarah (one of the cooks) called the front desk from the kitchen, she said that the elevator button and the stairs on the fourth floor are completely destroyed, and it's impossible to get up from there unless you use the fire escape. I already sent Angela (one of the maids) to make sure no one tries to get down there. She also said that there was some freaky stuff in the rooms down there. She sounded really scared."

"I'll go and check it out. Do either of you want to come with me?" Mark offered.

"Uh sure, I'll go with you." Gingka said.

"I don't want to stay up here any longer." Masamune said.

"Come on then." They climbed down the ladder and then rode to the third floor on the elevator. "If Angela and Ethel are right then we'll have to take the fire escape from here." He started down the hallway towards the door on the other end.

"Hey." Gingka said stopping by the doors to their rooms "We forgot about Madoka, Yu, and Tsubasa!"

"Oh yeah, that's right!"

"Come on you two!" Mark called from beside the door at the end of the hallway.

"We're coming!" Masamune shouted, and they ran down the hall.

After making their way down the ladder and into the hallway they were met by a very white, very scared woman who was clutching her apron and trembling.

"Sarah!" Mark said running over to her "Are you ok?"

She looked up at him and shook her head as if to clear it "Yeah I…I'm ok. Come with me and I'll show you." She led them to a door and opened it.

Masamune looked around. The room seemed like a normal kitchen to him. At least until he saw what was on the island. "Ugh! That's-That's disgusting!" He said taking a few steps back.

"Why is it here?" Gingka said moving a little closer. Mark just eyed it, feeling like throwing up.

"I-I don't know. It was here when I came in. But that's not all."

"There's more?" Mark said forcing down his nausea.

"Uh-huh. In the pool room."

They followed her to the room with the pool and saw something, or someone floating in what seemed to be blood, with the lights on in the pool. Doing his duty Mark jumped in without hesitating. When he came up he was holding the head in his hand. "It's a dummy!" He shouted swimming back to the edge "and I'm pretty sure this red stuff is paint, or at least that's what it smells like!" He plopped the head on the floor and pulled himself out of the water.

Leaving the cook and the maid to keep an eye on things there they climbed back up to the third floor. Gingka and Masamune made their way back up to the top floor while Mark changed into some dry clothes. After everyone was back on the helipad and the police had arrived and questioned them they remembered the others.

Grabbing Kat Gingka asked "Hey, since we seem to be finished here can we go check out our friends rooms now?"

"Oh yes, I forgot about that." Kat said. Glancing at the police then back at Gingka she said "Sure, I think it would be okay now."

They rode down the elevator to the third floor and walked to room 304. Kat pulled out her skeleton key and unlocked the door for them. The three of them walked into the dark room and looked around, Yu's bed was empty but there seemed to be someone in Tsubasa's.

"Hey Tsubasa!" Gingka shouted running over to his bed. No response. "Tsubasa?" Gingka touched Tsubasa's shoulder as Kat and Masamune joined him. Still no response.

Kat frowned. It was clear he wasn't dead as his chest was rising and falling rapidly. She put her hand on his forehead. "He's burning up." She said worriedly.

"What's wrong with Tsubasa?" Masamune said "and, where's Yu and Madoka?"

_Flashback end_

The doctors had said that Tsubasa had a fever caused by infection. They said he had probably noticed the infection starting but from what they had heard of him, had probably not told anyone because of his loner type personality and there was also the fact that as they were on the run, so he couldn't replace his bandages or put any kind of disinfectant on his wounds. After two days they had festered and become infected, finally inducing a high fever. They'd also said that based on his past recovery rate, he should be fine in a day or two.

But that aside, now two of them were missing. Madoka and Yu. He hoped they were okay.

**MWM**

Yu slowly opened his eyes. Looking around him he saw that he was in a smallish sort of room that was black with white accents. He sat up and realized he was lying on a white bed that had black edges on the blankets and black and white striped pillows. Next to the door was a white metal and glass table and a sleek modern looking chair. On the table was a black tray with food on it.

He stood up and walked over to the table. The food was on a white plate with a white lid on it. He lifted the lid.

"Ha! I halfway expected the food to be black and white!" He snickered and ate the food, which seemed to be some sort of lobster and a chocolate cake. Naturally the chocolate cake had white icing.

As he was licking the remainder of whatever meal he had just eaten (he wasn't sure what time it was) off his fingers he heard footsteps in the hallway. Moving to the black door that had a white frame, he tried to twist the white doorknob. Locked. Of course. He stood on his tiptoes and tried to look out the white framed window.

'Seriously whoever designed this place was majorly wacky.' He thought. As he was trying to see out the window someone, dressed in what looked like some sort of uniform stopped and glanced at him through the window.

"Oh you're awake." He seemed to have some kind of accent.

"Yeah! Who are you? Let me out!"

Ignoring him the man shoved something through the window. "Put these on."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"No!"

"If you won't, then I'll have to do it by force."

"Fine!" Yu said stomping off to one of the corners where a white and black divider stood. He help up the clothes that he had been told to change into and made a face. It was a white jacket similar to his own, with a black collar and a pair of white pants with a black stripe down the side, completed with white and black shoes.

"Okay that settles it" He snorted "Whoever put me in here is a serious loony bin."

He changed into the strange outfit that was surprisingly comfortable, and looked into the mirror hanging on the divider. "Oh great, now I fit in this room perfectly." He rolled his eyes.

As he walked out from behind the divider he heard a clicking sound and caught a glimpse of the door closing. The tray was no longer on the table.

"Hey!" he shouted running towards the door "Let me out!" He attempted to turn the handle and to his surprise it opened. He ran out to be greeted with an entirely gray hallway. He hadn't noticed from inside the black and white room.

He ran down the hallway and noticed a white and black door, and his curiosity moved him to look inside. When he opened the door he saw that this room was exactly the same as his except the coloring was exactly opposite, his room was black and white, and this room was white and black. And sitting on the bed in a white long sleeved mid-thigh length dress with black tights, a black necklace and white shoes high heeled boots, was Madoka.

"Madoka!"

"Yu?"

"Come on we're bustin' out of here!"

"Ok." Standing up she attempted to ignore the massive headache she had.

They ran down the gray hallway as fast as they could. At first they were afraid they would run into one of the guards like the ones who had brought them food and the strange clothes, but after a while they stopped.

They ran around a corner and were thrown into complete shock. This hallway was 100% different from the one around the corner. Colors. Everywhere colors, and not just normal colors, neon pinks, greens, blues, yellows, reds, purples, and oranges swirled around in a dizzying mixture. But this hallway had a large door just a few feet from the gray hallway. They decided to just go ahead and see what was behind the big wooden door that seemed so very out of place.

They pushed open the doors and were met with blinding sunlight. This seemed to be some sort of castle, and this seemed to be an inner courtyard.

'So we were on the first floor.' Madoka thought looking around.

The courtyard seemed to have a strange mixture of themes, Japanese influence splattered around in beautiful garden full of roses and violets and tulips. There was a small pond in the middle that turned into a small stream that disappeared under a Japanese styled bridge next to a giant dogwood tree. Next to the pond was a willow tree and three Japanese cherry trees in a triangle shape. In the middle of the cherry tree triangle was a pretty garden style metal table with two pretty garden style chairs. In one of these chairs drinking lemonade and eating cookies was a very familiar figure.

"You?" Madoka said shocked. **READ THE NOTE!**

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><p><strong>And cut! I know I'm a sucker for cliffies! It was mean of me wasn't it? OH well can't be helped, now on to the important stuff. For the next chapter I need someone to make a cameo appearance. It's just for one chapter (I think, they might have a tiny role more. Possibly) and it doesn't really have to be anyone in particular and I don't really have anyone in mind, sooooo what I'm going to do is ask a question. The first person to answer correctly will choose the character. The question is: Do you think the cloaked person is a guy or a girl? It's a fifty fifty question so someone has to get it right! Anyway when you answer go ahead and put who you would want so for those who don't have an account I can still use if they're right first, and so that I don't reveal the gender to anyone until my next update. If you don't answer it this way I won't use yours even if you're right. Here's an example: I think it's a guygirl and I want whoever. Good luck! Oh and if any of you were hoping for another Chief Hiroshi and Ryo Hagane phone conversation, I'm not sure I'm actually going to do that. They're hard to do, and I don't have any good ideas for one right now so I probably won't end up doing it.**

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><p><strong>Comment replies:<strong>

**Yu101Cutie: Thank you!**

**DarknessRules: Thank you, you're welcome, and I hope you can get another soon!**

**ANimEisAweSOmE4400: Thank you, you're welcome, and I'm glad you like it!**

**Jazzmonkey: Thank you! That was what I was trying to get across so I'm glad I succeeded.**

**In case you're wondering those didn't come from the kitchen/cafeteria thing. They had been baked the previous night and put in a small fridge behind the counter.**


	7. A Friend in Foe's territory

**Hey everybody! I just wanted to thank everyone who reads this and all those who review. I really enjoy getting reviews and they really boost my inspiration. Sorry it's been so long but I had a conference thing to go to out of town for a week and while I was gone I got a major burst of inspiration and when I came back I had to rewrite a lot of things, so thanks for bearing with me. PS originally I was going to reveal the bad guy in this chapter but due to my burst of inspiration I didn't. Sorry 'bout that, but it will make my story longer.**

**You mean I don't own Beyblade?**

"You?" Madoka asked, slightly shocked.

"You?" The blue haired girl sitting at the small garden table stood.

"Me! Hahaha! Hang on, have I seen you before?" Yu said.

"You're the girl we met on the plane! What are you doing here?"

"Yes, I did meet you on the plane, but I think that's my question. Why are you here, in my grandmother's castle?"

"Your what?"

"This is my grandmother's castle. You're Miku right?"

'Oh wait that's right, we gave her fake names!' Madoka thought "Uh, y-yeah that's right."

"And he's Ryuga."

"What?" Madoka poked Yu in the ribs "Oh, heheh, right." He glared at Madoka.

"So this is your grandmother's castle? I didn't think there were any castles in Malibu."

"There's not, at least not to my knowledge."

"But I thought you said you were going to visit her in Malibu."

"I did, but that was three days ago, I left Malibu after I found out she wasn't there."

"Wait a sec, three days ago? We met you on the plane three days ago?"

"Yeah, I left grandma's mansion a week ago, two days after meeting you two, and came here to her castle. Why are you dressed like that?"

"Some creepy guy kidnapped us and we woke up just a little while ago and they gave us these clothes to wear." Madoka's head was spinning; they'd been kidnapped? It was so hard to believe! Did the others even realize they were gone? Was there a search for them? And what did Diana have to do with all of this?

"You were kidnapped?" Diana sighed and rubbed her face with her hand "This has got to be grandma's doing. Come with me and I'll try and explain." She led them across the Japanese style bridge and opened another door. This time the hallway was what you would expect in a medieval castle; stone walls and floors, poor lighting, torches, big wooden doors, and suits of armor lined the hallway giving Madoka the uncomfortable feeling of being watched.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to try and find a way to get you out without getting caught."

"Getting caught? You mean by those guard guys?"

"Yeah, them." Her back was to them as she walked swiftly down the hallway.

"Who are those guys anyway?" Yu asked.

"Well you see my family on my father's side has owned this castle for hundreds of years even though few of us have ever lived in it. But when my however many greats grandfather built this castle he founded some sort of secret society. I'm not really sure what it's about, or if anyone even knows anymore, but my family has always been the "rulers" of the society. My grandmothers in charge right now, and honestly I think she's crazy."

Madoka wasn't sure if she should believe her or not, but she decided to trust her, at least for now. "So wait a sec, your grandmother owns this castle and kidnapped us?"

"Probably."

"But why?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because if this society is about anything, it's about power and your team is the most powerful Beyblade team in the world. That's all I can come up with anyway."

They continued to walk down the hallway in silence until Yu couldn't stand it anymore "Ahh! It's so quiet I can't stand it! Somebody say something!"

"Yu!" Madoka said.

"What do you want me to say?" Diana asked still not turning around.

"I dunno, just something!"

"Oh I know! Diana why is it that on the other side of the yard the hallways are so um… weird, and this side is so traditional?"

"I don't really know, I guess it's because the last several generations of my family have been a bit… eccentric to say the least, possibly to the point of being insane. I think it may be genetic." She'd said the last bit as if it was a joke but for some reason Madoka thought she was only pretending to be joking.

"Crap!" Diana muttered under her breath.

"What is it?" Madoka said. She glanced around the older girls shoulder and saw one of the uniformed men heading in their direction. Diana grabbed her and Yu's arms, opened a door to their left and flung both of them inside shutting the door behind them.

"Hey!" Yu shouted glaring at the door.

"Be quiet Yu, we don't want that guy to see us." Yu glared at her but kept quiet.

Madoka glanced around and saw that they were in a large rectangular room. A long straight red rug ran down the middle of the room from one door to the other, and the walls were lined with portraits; painted portraits. Looking at the first picture she saw it was a very old looking painting of an old grouchy looking man. "1807. Theodore Frat."

"Ugly name for a ugly guy." Yu snickered.

Madoka made a face and moved to the next picture which was of a younger man and a woman holding a baby. "1815. Oswald, Rosalind, and Henry Frat. Oh I see! This must be like, a hall of ancestors or something!"

"Big deal." Yu rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. Madoka ignored him and went to the next painting. She could hear muffled sounds from the hall and assumed Diana was talking to the guard.

She continued to make her way down the hall looking at each picture and reading the dates. Amazingly enough each of the family's oldest child always seemed to be a boy, until the year 1950, where the oldest child seemed to be a four year old girl. The next painting was in 1979, and was of the same girl, except grown, and a boy who looked to be around 12. The last painting was in 2004. It was of a family of four, the man in it was the same boy who had been in the last one, and there was a pretty woman that looked a lot like Diana next to him. Standing next to the man was a ten year old Diana who was very skinny and she looked sad, and maybe scared. Now that she really looked at the painting she realized none of them really looked happy except the five year old boy sitting in his mother's lap.

"Wait a minute, that little boy looks kind of familiar." She said leaning closer. She was about to look at the name plate on the bottom when the door opened.

"Come on guys, we need to get out of here fast before another one of them comes around." She walked back out without waiting.

Reluctantly Madoka followed, having to practically run to keep up. 'I really wish I could've read who that boy was.' She thought.

**MWM**

Yu huffed. He was sick of walking down this boring hallway. They'd been walking for what felt like hours and nothing interesting had happened. "Argh! I wish something would happen!"

"You should be happy that nothing is happening Yu! There could always be someone chasing us!" Madoka said.

"Yeah, but I'm so bored! There's nothing to do!"

"You could tell me about the person who captured you." Diana said.

"What do you mean?" Madoka questioned.

"Describe them or something, maybe I know who they are."

"All I can say is that it was someone in a black cloak."

Diana stopped for a moment and looked at her "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"It's just…. There are four men here that are what the people here call the "black ops" or the "black cloaks". They're the four most powerful people in the society and are all fairly brutal. If they were sent to get you my grandmother must be serious."

"Hey! What are you doing!" an angry guard stood a few feet from them, Diana separating them from him.

"I uh, I'm just….uhm…"

He cut her off by slapping her hard across her face, knocking her down. "It looks a lot like you're helping the prisoners escape!" he stepped over her and grabbed the two prisoners "Come on." He dragged them to a dark stairwell and they walked down several floors.

"Where are we going?" Yu asked.

"Somewhere you won't escape again." He was sneering.

After descending a few more flights they stopped at what looked like a medieval dungeon. He threw them in two separate cells and locked the doors. "You won't be getting out this time." He laughed a little, and after using his walkie-talkie to inform someone else of what happened he made himself at home on a small stone bench.

**WMW**

That night they got food that was similar to what they had had earlier, except it was presented much more roughly, and they got their clothes back as well as two blankets a piece.

Madoka looked around her dark, dank, stone cell. It was really depressing. She could only see Yu if she (and he) stuck her head out through the iron bars and looked around, but she didn't like doing that because it was hard to get her head back in. There was no way she could break through the iron bars and even if she could she would have to get past the guard. There was a barred window though, and it had a beautiful cliff-side view, and tonight it provided a view of a sliver of the moon over a large forest. There was no sign of a city anywhere near.

She wondered if Diana knew where they were, or if she were even still in the castle. They still knew very little about her.

Trying to keep her mind off of her plight she began thinking about the portrait. Maybe if she thought about it enough she would remember who that boy was.

**MWM**

Masamune crossed his arms and glared at the ceiling that seemed to be miles above him. After a week had passed without any kind of attack on them the police decided to let them go into the rest of the hotel. Of course they were heavily guarded with an undercover policeman guarding each of them. It was really irritating. The only time the man wasn't right next to him was when he went to the bathroom.

Anyway right now he and Gingka were standing in the casino portion of the hotel just watching people walk around. It was really boring. Tsubasa had been better since a few days ago but he'd chosen to stay in the room and read over going with them to the casino.

"Hey do you guys ever do anything?" Gingka asked one of the men beside him. The man just gave Gingka a strange look.

"Jeez these guys are so boring."

"Yeah, I'm so bored!" Masamune said.

"Hi guys."

"Huh? Oh hi Tsubasa." Gingka said.

"You should have just stayed in the room; it's just as boring down here." Masamune whined.

"I finished my book so I thought I might as well come down here and see if there is anything to do here." He looked warily at the man standing next to him, who was looking around boredly. Unlike their guards Tsubasa's guard seemed to be young, probably in his early twenties, and didn't seem to enjoy playing bodyguard.

Suddenly a familiar figure caught Masamune's eye. "Toby?"

"Masamune?"

Masamune ran to where Toby was. "Long time no see!"

"Yeah it's been a while. So why are you here?" Toby's eyes wandered to the grumpy looking man standing next to Masamune before he noticed Masamune's friends Gingka and Tsubasa heading their direction.

"Uh we're uh…. We were…. Uhhhhh…."

"We're just visiting over here." Tsubasa interjected joining the two (or three really) his guard dragging along beside him.

"Oh ok."

"So why are you here?" Gingka asked.

"I'm here for the West Coast Beyblade Tournament; it's a sort of qualifying round for the nationals."

"Beyblading tournament?"

"Don't get any ideas Gingka we aren't going to be part of it." Tsubasa said.

"Ahhh, that's not fair!"

"Sorry Gingka but you couldn't have been in it anyway since you have to live in the US." Toby said.

"Oh."

"Hey do you guys have anything to do tonight?"

"No." the three of them said at the same time.

Toby was surprised for a moment and then smiled "Well would you like to come to a show that will be held here tonight? I heard it's supposed to be Vegas styled. I'm only going because of my mother, and it would be nice to have you guys along." **(1)**

"That sounds like it would be a good idea for you three." Tsubasa's guard said suddenly interested. The four of them looked at him for a minute. "What?"

"Who are you?" Toby asked.

"M-me? N-no one just some guy standing around….OH look! Is that a…uh…. Oh wow the uh, pattern on the carpet is so interesting." He finished sheepishly staring at the ground, while the four boys sweat dropped and one of his partners face palmed while the other just rolled his eyes.

"Who are these guys?" Toby whispered.

"Trust me you don't want to know." Masamune whispered back.

**WMW**

Outside the theatre someone in a gray hoodie, black sweat pants, and black tenni shoes leaned against the wall close to the door. They were the only one there and no one who had gone into the theatre had given them a second glance. That was good though; the last thing they wanted was attention. For the last week ever since Madoka and Yu had been captured they'd been following the other three around waiting for the LAPD to let their guard down just for a second. So far it wasn't going well.

'Stupid kids! At this rate I'll just be lucky to capture them at all.'

**MWM**

That night the four boys plus three undercover police men went to see a Vegas style show held in the theatre of their Los Angeles hotel. Toby pretended to be interested in the show, while Masamune and Gingka fought over a giant bowl of popcorn, receiving glares from the audience around them. The three guards were completely engrossed in watching the scantily clad women prance around the stage.

Tsubasa sighed and looked at the floor. Watching mostly naked women dance just wasn't his thing. He realized that most guys his age would be drooling seeing the beautiful women, and it wasn't that he didn't like girls, he just found this kind of "entertainment" to be low-class and even a bit sophmoric. **(2)**

He stood up and made his way to the door, glancing back. At the moment Jim (his guard) didn't even notice he'd gotten up but he knew it wouldn't be long so he'd just enjoy a few minutes of alone time.

Stepping into the hallway he saw that it was empty of people except for one man **(3)** who was slouched against the wall to his right, his hoodie concealing his face. He had taken a few steps when something flew past him scratching his cheek and cutting a few strands of his hair, and sticking into the wall behind him.

**WMW**

Finally! One of the little imps decided to show his face! He wouldn't be getting away. Actually by throwing that kunai they'd only intended to get his attention not actually hurt him in any way, not that it really mattered.

"So Tsubasa," They said their voice disguised by a microphone that made it sound robotic. "Will you come with me peacefully or do you want to fight?"

The boy shifted positions ready to move. 'Drat.' They thought 'This one's smarter than the others.' They'd heard his fighting style used more strategy and less strength but they didn't think he'd respond like this. Actually they'd thought he would make the first move but he was being smart. In their current position Tsubasa was forcing them to make the first move and once they did he would get an idea of what they were doing and make a run for it. They could wait for him to move, or take the time to think up a plan that would trick him, but they couldn't afford to wait. Any moment someone might come down this hallway and Tsubasa would slip right out of their grasp. The stupid boy had come up with a foolproof plan in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly the door to the theatre clicked open and Tsubasa's guard stepped out. 'Perfect.' They thought whipping their bey launcher and a bey out and aiming it before a second had barely passed.

**MWM**

When Tsubasa saw the man aim their bey at Jim he wasn't sure what they planned to do but clearly it wasn't good. He thought quickly: the three of them made a sort of lopsided triangle and he had two options. One was to get the police man out of the way, and the second was to try and stop the man from shooting his bey. Since he was closer to the bey wielder he decided to go for option two.

Running as fast as he could he jumped, and in an attempt to stop them from shooting it he grabbed at their arms. All he managed to do was shove his arms a little bit. Still in mid fall he was shocked when he saw the bey slam into Jims left shoulder and continue to dig into the man's flesh. Jim screamed as his blood and small chunks of flesh spewed from his shoulder, and then it connected with the bone. The sound was horrible, a terrible grinding sound that reminded him a bit of an electric saw. The bey finish plowing through the poor man's shoulder then fell in a small arch to the ground where it rolled to a stop. All of this happened before Tsubasa hit the ground.

He landed on the floor on his side and rolled into a kneeling position. Then he looked at Jim who was now on the ground as well, and he seemed to be in shock. Glancing up he realized he didn't have the time to worry about Jim right then.

The man approached him while he was trying to get up. Glancing up he looked straight into the halfway hidden face of his approching assailant. The malice on the visible part of their face was terrifying. They grabbed Tsubasa's right bicep and jerked him to his feet and before he could react they slammed their fist into his stomach. He grabbed his stomach and doubled over, the force of the punch sending him a few steps back. Before he could recover from the punch the person kicked him hard in his jaw, snapping his head backward and sending him crashing into the wall, then to the floor.

Tsubasa tried to get up but fell again before he even started. He watched the man's feet approaching as his vision began to blur, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Jim trying to move. Vaguely he thought could hear people coming and he somewhat realized he was being lifted onto someone's shoulder. He made one final attempt to fight before the world went dark.

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><p><strong>Comment replies:<strong>

**PrincessZaraStar: Thanks sooooo much for all of your reviews! They always inspire me to write more!**

**Starless Skyline: Thank you for your review, and for reminding me that it's my story and it's really up to me. Sometimes I forget that.**

**Fouts Girl: Thank you! I aim to please!**

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><p><strong>1. As far as I can remember they never said anything about him having or not having parents.<strong>

**2. I heard this word somewhere and thought it was cool. In case you're wondering it means silly, dull, immature, or something along that line.**

**3. He's just assuming it's a man.**

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><p><strong>So I was going to reveal a bunch of stuff in this chapter, but due to my burst of inspiration I ended up not. Anyone want to take a guess at who the bad guy might be? I've given several hints. Anyway Thank you for reading this and I hope to update again soon but I started school this week so I won't have as much time. Be sure to review! Pretty please?<strong>


	8. Three down, two to go

**I'm so sorry it took so long to update again but I started my dual enrollment college English class and my first paper is due on Wednesday, plus all the normal work from 11th grade. And after all that, I'm in the honor society, I'm taking an art class, I'm in my yearbook committee, I'm volunteering at my local zoo, and this weekend I couldn't write as much as I wanted to because I had family over and it's my great grandmothers 94th birthday today. Plus I've started working on a novel! Anyway enough excuses it's not like anyone really cares anyway. So here it is! I hope you like it.**

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><p>The doors of the theatre burst open just as the mysterious man disappeared down the hall taking Tsubasa with him. Jim tried to move but the wound in his shoulder kept him pinned to his spot and groaning in pain. He had failed his mission and it had sounded so easy at first. The guys at the station would never let him live this down, if he survived that is.<p>

Within a matter of seconds the people from the theatre had surrounded him.

"Oh my gosh!" a woman muttered covering her mouth with both hands. Several similar exclamations were heard from both women and men, and several cell phones came out.

"What happened?!" the other two police men pushed their way through the crowd dragging their charges with them.

"Are you okay?" one of them kneeled down next to him.

"Ungh….I….I…urgh."

"Don't try to speak, just stay still, an ambulance will be here soon." The police man looked worriedly at Jim's shoulder, which Jim was covering with his hand. It was clear that he was in a lot of pain, and no wonder; there was a hole in his shoulder that went all the way through his back. At this point he didn't even know if Jim would –or could- ever be the same.

At that moment sirens could be heard blaring outside. Two paramedics carrying a stretcher shoved their way through the crowd and began loading Jim onto the stretcher.

"Wait a second," Toby said from beside Gingka and Masamune "where's Tsubasa?"

Jim tried to sit up as they carted him past "He… he, urrgh, t-took him." He managed to say.

Instantly both of the other policemen snapped into attention "What?"

"I….I….failed. They…. Got him."

The older police man took a deep breath and closed his eyes then opened them again and looked at the two boys. "Let's go."

"Go?" Gingka asked.

"You can't stay here anymore, it's not safe."

"Why not?" Gingka asked neither of the two boys having picked up what had happened yet.

"Obviously your pursuer knows where you are. After all they captured Tsubasa."

"They did? When? Where is he?" Gingka said.

The man took a deep breath and tried not to roll his eyes. "Just come on."

**MWM**

Yu glared at the ceiling above his head. Just like everything else in his cell it was made of stone. He was sick of it. For the last week all he could do was stare at stone or iron or an unchanging mountainside. He sat up abruptly and shouted angrily at nothing in particular "I'm so bored! Let me out of this stinking place! When I get out of here I'm gonna… I'm gonna… Do something terrible to you! So you better let me out right NOW!"

"Hey, hey, shut up little kid. And do you really think that'll make me let you out? I mean even if you could actually hurt me in any way there's no way that would get me to let you out." The young man currently guarding them said coming to lean against Yu's cell.

Yu jumped up and ran over to the bars where the man was standing and kicked his shin as hard as he could.

"OUCH!" The man jumped back on one foot then bent down and began rubbing his new bruise. "Stupid brat."

His muttering was interrupted by the entrance of a tall man in a black cloak and Diana. Diana looked unhappy, or maybe it was something… different.

"Diana!" Madoka exclaimed running to the bars. "What are you doing here? What's happening? Are you okay? What's going to happen to us?"

Diana didn't say anything or even seem to hear her; she just looked at the floor to the right.

"Diana?" Madoka said in a quiet voice.

"Get them." The tall man said to some guards that had been following him. Listening to his voice and judging by his height Madoka knew this wasn't the man that had captured her and Yu. According to Diana there were four of these men, so it had to be one of the others.

The guards opened the cell doors and grabbed Madoka; they had a bit of trouble with Yu though.

"Don't touch me you stinking freaks!" Yu yelled kicking and punching at anyone who got near him. It took a few moments before they grabbed him and dragged him, still kicking screaming and squirming, out of his cell.

"Let's go." The tall man in the black cloak said leading them back up the stairs they had walked down the week before. When they got to a hallway they stopped and took an elevator up. It was old and creaky and for a moment Madoka was afraid it might fall out from under them, but she relaxed after it didn't.

"Where are we going?" Madoka whispered to Diana in a small voice. Diana kept staring at the ground with an empty look in her eyes. Madoka silently wondered what had happened to her.

The elevator stopped and they pushed Madoka out and carried Yu who was _still _kicking and screaming bloody murder. They dragged and pushed the two captives to a helicopter with Diana and the man in black following.

When Madoka looked into the helicopter the first thing she saw was Tsubasa lying bound on the floor. "Tsubasa!" she shouted jumping into the helicopter and bending down beside him.

"Tsubasa?" Yu said pausing his fighting for a moment. When he saw Tsubasa on the floor of the helicopter he squirmed out of the guards hands into the helicopter and ran over to where Tsubasa was. "Tsubasa!"

Just then a guard grabbed his hands and tied them behind his back while another did the same to Madoka.

"What'd you do to Tsubasa?!" Yu shouted. "He better not be hurt or I'll make you sorry!"

The man laughed cruelly "Don't worry he's fine, a bit bruised and sore maybe but he'll live. He should be awake soon."

It felt weird to Madoka; with the tone of the man's voice he initially sounded cruel, but after really listening it sounded more as if he was trying to reassure them. It was probably just her imagination but it kept hanging in the back of her mind; a lot like the portrait had been. She still hadn't figured out who was in that picture.

Looking at Diana now she seemed vaguely familiar, but Madoka just couldn't quite place it. Most likely she resembled whoever that little boy in the portrait had been. If only she could figure out who it was! She was really beginning to get frustrated with herself for not remembering.

The men finished tying the two up and sat them down beside Tsubasa. The guards didn't say anything and neither did the man in black nor Diana who sat with a completely blank face that unnerved Madoka.

She sighed, her arms already becoming sore from being tied behind her back, and her legs were falling asleep from her awkward sitting position. She shifted her weight around until she found a semi comfortable position.

Looking up she could see the night sky through the windows. Each little star gleamed brightly as if trying to tell her not to give up hope. She glanced down at Tsubasa and wondered if their captors were planning to kidnap Gingka and Masamune too.

**WMW**

Gingka glared at the back of the police man's head as they rode to the hospital. The day before Tsubasa had disappeared and the police man guarding him had gotten injured. Today the hospital said it would be okay for the police to interrogate the police man and Gingka and Masamune and pitched a fit until they said it would be okay for them to tag along too. They had notified the Japanese police force about what had happened the night before, right after Tsubasa had been kidnapped.

**MWM**

Chief Hiroshi glared at the phone. Recently that thing had become his worst enemy. All that ever seemed to happen on it anymore was calls to the extremely irritating -and frustrating- Ryo Hagane, and calls from the American police force giving him news about the kids being kidnapped! But there was good news too; one of the LAPDs men had witnessed the whole thing so now they would get an idea of what the attacker was like. But for now he needed to figure out something else to do with the two remaining targets.

WMW

They had arrived at the hospital. Gingka hated hospitals. Walking down the hallways you could smell the sickness, and if that wasn't enough there was always the oppressive atmosphere. In a hospital it seemed death was only one small step away.

They finally arrived at the room Jim was in and Terry (the policeman who had been put in charge of investigating this case while it was in LA) opened the door and walked in. Jim didn't look too good. He was almost covered in wires and tubes and had a cast over his most of his chest and over his shoulder and down his arm.

"Hey Jim, how are you doing?" Terry asked sitting down in a chair next to him. Gingka and Masamune found themselves a corner to be quiet in. Those had been the terms of their coming.

Jim glanced at some of the tubes and wires connected to him, and then looked back at Terry "I guess I could be better."

"Has your wife been here?"

"Yeah, but I just sent her home."

"Oh, ok."

They sat in an awkward silence for a while before Terry cleared his throat. "So we need to talk about what happened."

"I was wondering when you'd bring that up." Jim smiled a bit but it looked sad "You need to know about the guy who got the kid."

"Yeah. Start from the beginning then we'll go from there. You know the drill."

"So during the day we met this kid, um, I think his name was Toby."

"It was!" Masamune said from the corner, receiving a silencing glare from Terry, and a slight snicker from Jim.

"Anyway he invited the kids we were watching to go to this theatre thing in the hotel to watch a show. About thirty minutes into it, Tsubasa got up and left but I didn't notice till a minute or two later. When I noticed I went after him and when I got to the hall he was standing kinda rigidly like he was getting ready to run and facing this other guy. But right when I walked out the guy pulled out a bey and a shooter and shot it at me. But when he shot, Tsubasa ran at him and jumped and moved the guys aim a bit so that it didn't kill me. Then the guy punched Tsubasa and made him fall over then he kicked him under the chin and hit him into the wall. That's when Tsubasa went unconscious and he grabbed him and took off. You know the rest."

"Hmmm… So describe the guy to me."

"He seemed to be about as tall as Tsubasa, maybe a little shorter, he had black pants and shoes, and a gray hoodie. I couldn't tell anything else though because the hoodie was up and their face was hidden. It's lucky I saw that much; I only saw him for a few seconds. He could have been taller or shorter, or anything, all I know for sure is that he had black pants and shoes and a gray hoodie. Sorry."

"Hmm, that's not much but I guess it's better than nothing." Terry stood and walked towards the door. "Tell your wife I said hello when you see her again, and get well soon." He started to walk out the door then stopped "You two, come on we're leaving."

Gingka and Masamune nodded, ran to the door, and followed him out.

**MWM**

Chief Hiroshi sighed and rubbed his temples. This whole situation was just one big headache for him. He had failed to protect three fifths of the world renowned beyblading team put in his care and failed to find any clues to who was behind their disappearances.

He stood from his desk and looked out the window of his small office, his reflection blocking some of his view of the nightlife. The door clicked open and his secretary's reflection joined his in the window. "Coffee sir?" she held up a cup of steaming black liquid.

He looked at it for a minute before taking it out of her hands and looking back out the window. "Thanks."

They stood in silence for a minute before she finally spoke "Sir, what do we plan to do now? The LAPD has been calling for the last hour and I'm not sure what to tell them."

"Tell them to get them back over here secretly and I'll take care of the rest."

"Yes sir."

**WMW**

Gingka and Masamune sat in the Los Angeles police station waiting for something to happen. That's what they had been doing for hours. The boredom was about to kill Masamune.

"Ah! I'm so bored!" Masamune shouted jumping up. People watching was definitely not a fun thing to do. Not for Masamune anyway.

"Yeah, there's nothing to do in this place!" Gingka hopped up too.

A sly grin spread across Masamune's face "We should do something to liven things up some. Heheh."

"Got anything in mind?"

"Come on I'll show you." The two boys snuck to the small office area where the controls for everything powered by electricity were. "You get the lady out from back there and I'll fix the all the stuff!"

"Hey why do I have to get her out? Why can't you?"

"You're better at that kind of thing than I am."

"Ok fine." Gingka walked around the door "Uh hey, the guy in that big room in the other side of the building asked me to tell you his lights are out."

"What?" after clicking a few times the lady gave him a suspicious look "It says here those lights are fine."

"I don't know about that, but the guy said they don't work."

"Hmm." The woman stood up and walked past him brusquely.

"Good work!" Masamune ran in and commandeered the chair.

"Wow even the coffee pots are controlled from here!"

"Whoa look how many rooms there are in this building, coffee pots and toilets too!" Masamune pressed the select all button over the bathroom section and pressed the continual run choice under the test section. All over the building toilets and sinks began to overflow and hand driers began to run.

"Move over let me do something!" Gingka pushed Masamune's rolling chair away and used the same option on coffee pots and printers. Even in the office they were in printing paper began flying all over the place. They could hear the chaos in the hallway and laughed giving each other high fives.

They stopped abruptly when an irritated looking chief of police stepped in the door way with his arms crossed.

"Heheh, opps?" Masamune said sheepishly.

The man smiled and shook his head. "Come on you two, we're sending you back to Japan."

"What?"

"You heard me, come on."

A few hours later they were surrounded by big guys with even bigger guns in a helicopter heading back to Japan.

**MWM**

Tsubasa opened his eyes slowly and looked around him. He seemed to be inside a helicopter. There were a few people slumped over in chairs and from the scene outside the window it seemed to be sometime after dark. He did his best to sit up but a rope digging into his arms made it hard. When he was halfway sitting up he got a terrible ache in his jaw and the back of his head. It was so bad it made it hard to think straight so he just fell back over. Then he heard a sniffling sound. Looking around he spotted Yu and Madoka tied up next to him. Madoka seemed to have fallen asleep in a position that would definitely make her have cramps in the morning.

Yu was sitting up and his body shook a little every now and then. It only took a minute for Tsubasa to figure out he was crying. Ignoring the pain he wormed his way over to Yu. "H-hey Yu, you okay?"

"T-tsubasa!?" Yu jumped then turned to face him. "You're okay!" If he hadn't been tied up he probably would have jumped on Tsubasa.

"Yeah, I think so." And he wasn't lying he was fine besides the pain in his head, jaw, and chest.

A tear slid down Yu's face "I was afraid you were gonna die!" Yu said sniffling.

"No one's going to die Yu." Tsubasa whispered.

"Are you sure?"

Tsubasa looked down then back up at Yu "I'm not God so I can't guarantee anything but I'll do everything I can to make sure everyone is fine. I promise you Yu, I'll keep you safe."

"Tsubasa…" Yu started crying a few of his tears landing in Tsubasa's hair.

Tsubasa wanted to comfort Yu somehow, to just hold him and let him cry as much as he needed to, but for now all he could do was lay on the floor next to him and listen to the boy cry. After a while Yu's sobs stopped and Tsubasa realized he had finally fallen asleep. "I wonder if we will really be alright." He said quietly to himself looking out the window.

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><p><strong>Fouts girl: Thank you! I do try.<strong>

**Darknessrules: I'm glad you like it, and thank you for sticking around this whole time and reviewing! I know I tend to be slow.**

**Song of Hope: Thank you! Sorry but I don't like to give spoilers in any way, so I guess you'll just have to wait and see! :D**

**Yu101cutie: Thank you so much! And I'll try my best!**

**Dazards: Thanks, you really think so?**

**Ryuga-kowalski9496: I'm glad you like it!**

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><p><strong>So how was it huh? I really, really, like getting feed-back so please review, not to mention it inspires me, and speeds my writing along some. So please review!<strong>


	9. Shadows gathering

**Hi! I don't think I did too bad on the in between time this time! Though I could do better. Anyway thanks sooo much for reading! And even more for reviewing! I won't ask for you to review this time, but do it anyway! So enjoy!**

**If you can believe it, I don't own Beyblade.**

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><p>"Get up, we're here." Madoka awoke to a gruff voice and someone yanking her up off the floor by her arms. She cried out in pain from the ropes digging into her wrists but bit her lips when she received an ugly look from the man who had done the jerking around. She then noticed Yu and Tsubasa were being jerked up too. Neither of them looked too good but she was glad they were okay. The short heavily muscled man practically threw her out of the helicopter before jumping out himself. She squirmed in the dirt attempting to get up before her could yank her up again, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and right at Diana. There was something about Diana that seemed familiar, or at least Madoka thought so. Maybe it was the strange look in her eye, or maybe she looked similar to that boy in the picture-who it was, she still couldn't place.<p>

"Here" Diana gently pulled Madoka up.

"Thanks." Madoka looked around her and saw they seemed to be on a rocky coast somewhere. The sea just beyond the rocks, was very gray and very rough; there seemed to be a storm approaching. On a nearby hill there was a lighthouse that was most likely their destination. "Is that where we're going?" She asked nodding her head in the direction of the lighthouse.

"Mm-hmm." Diana nodded her head and started moving towards it, the man in black directly in front of her.

Madoka furrowed her brow thoughtfully and looked around again wondering where they were. Wherever it was had to be pretty far from where they had been before, given it couldn't have been more than 4 o'clock in the morning. She slowed down and fell into step with Tsubasa and Yu, who (due to his short legs) was having a bit of a hard time keeping up while glaring his hardest at their captors. "You ok?" Madoka asked Tsubasa.

"A little sore, but I'll be okay."

"Oh... So, where do you think we are?"

Tsubasa looked around then shook his head. "I don't know, on a northern coast somewhere, judging by the temperature." It was cold wherever they were and with the addition of the sea breeze Tsubasa felt like he was about to freeze, since his clothes were intended for warmer weather.

"Do you think they're going to try and get Gingka and Masamune too?"

"Most likely, I don't see what the point in kidnapping only three of us could be."

"Do you think they'll be able to find us? Be honest."

He sighed "I don't know."

Madoka sighed and shivered a little, the cool weather starting to get to her too.

"So do you know who our kidnappers are anyway?"

"No, but, well, um, remember that blue haired girl from the plane when we were on our way to California?"

Tsubasa looked up and searched his memories for a moment "Oh yeah, wasn't her name Diane or something?"

"Diana actually, she was at the castle thing they had us in before. She says it was her grandmother who kidnapped us. That's her right there actually."

After looking at Diana's back for a moment Tsubasa asked "Why would her grandmother want to kidnap us?"

"She said something about her being the leader of a secret society that wants power or something, and that it would probably be because we are the most powerful beyblade team in the world."

"Wait, you told her who you really are?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"We gave her fake names on the plane remember?"

Madoka's jaw dropped as she realized he was right. "But… We never… We never told her who we really were!"

"How did she know then?"

"I don't know." Madoka stared at the girl who was walking a little ways in front of her. Just who exactly was Diana?

**MWM**

"Okay boys we're here!" One of the tall men that had been on the helicopter with Gingka and Masamune, jumped down and stretched his long cramped legs out. While on the plane he had told them that he was a marine in the American army and sometimes helped out the Los Angeles police department for a buddy of his.

"Good, I'm sick of this thing!" Masamune jumped out of the plane and looked around. It was a big concrete landing bad in an airport. "Uh where are we?"

"Back in Japan."

Gingka got out and sighed glumly, thinking of the others. Madoka and Yu had been gone for a week and now Tsubasa was gone too. He really hoped they were okay.

"So what do we do now?" Masamune said.

"We wait for that guy with the weird name to call and tell me where to take you two."

"Guy with a weird name?"

"Yeah its, uhh... Ri something or another."

"You mean Ryo Hagane?"

"Hey yeah that was it! How'd you know?"

"He's Gingka's dad and the director of the WBBA!"

"Oh ok." The guy's phone rang suddenly and he walked a little ways off to answer it.

"So Gingka, what's wrong with you?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You're acting all gloomy and stuff."

"Doesn't it bother you at all?"

"What do you mean?"

"Our friends have disappeared and we're probably next! We don't even know if they're alive anymore!"

"Oh, that's it huh?" Masamune's voice took on a more quiet tone, which sounded really weird to Gingka. "Well I figure, thinking about it won't help anything so why should I?"

"I wish it was that easy for me."

"You're dad's going to keep us safe anyway."

'He was keeping the others safe too when they disappeared.' Gingka thought.

"Okay guys!" the large marine walked back over to them. "This is where we go our separate ways. It was nice to meet ya; maybe we'll meet again someday." He patted the two boys on the back before hopping into the helicopter.

"Bye!" Masamune shouted.

"Yeah it was nice meeting you too!" Gingka waved as the helicopter with the man and his buddies took off. "So what now?"

Masamune shrugged. "I don't know."

Just then a golf cart pulled up with a familiar blue haired girl in the driver's seat. "Hey guys hop on the back."

"Where are we going?" Gingka asked as he got in.

"You're going somewhere that no one will find you."

"Where's that?" Masamune asked as the cart started moving.

"It's a safe house, complete with locks and bars and video cameras. There's no way anyone can get you from in there."

"Sounds cool!" Masamune shouted.

Hikaru put her finger in her ear "Don't yell in my ear!"

"Heh, sorry."

"Jeez you're such a little kid!"

Gingka snickered as they pulled next to a large bus and stopped. "What's this?"

"It's a bus. It's going to take you to your destination."

"A bus? But that sounds so much lamer than riding on a helicopter with a bunch of big American guys and guns."

She rolled her eyes and turned to look at them "It's not about how exciting or lame it is! It's about keeping you two, the remaining members of team Gan Gan Galaxy, safe! Besides lamer isn't an actual word." She got out and walked them over to the bus. When the doors opened they were surprised to see it was full of civilians who looked like tourists.

"But don't we need, like, guards or something?" Masamune asked.

"They're all undercover policemen and such so you've got plenty of guards." She pointed at two empty chairs "You two sit there, when the guy sitting next to you tells you to, get off. Have fun and be safe." Hikaru said before going back down the steps and off the bus.

The boys looked at each other and shrugged before following her instructions.

**WMW**

"Hey" the guy sitting beside Gingka prodded him awake with his finger.

"Huh… Wha?" Gingka yawned and stretched before looking at the source of the poking; a rather large man in an oversized T-shirt and a pair of blue jean shorts. "Umm, hello?"

"We're almost to you and your friends disembarkation spot."

"Disem what?"

"Where you get off. Now you see that guy up there in the black T-shirt?" He pointed to a young man with black hair wearing a black polo shirt and black slacks with earphones in his ears. Gingka realized the guy, along with a few others, hadn't been on the bus the last time he'd looked.

"Yeah, what about him?"

"I'm a bit suspicious of him so be careful when you get off."

"Ok?" He shrugged a bit then elbowed Masamune.

"Ouch! What was that for?!" Masamune woke with a start and glared and Gingka, rubbing his ribs.

"Let's call it payback for your… creative, way of waking me up last week."

"You mean when we were in the mountains? That was more than a week ago; it's like ancient history now!"

"But only barely more! Besides-!"

"Hey kid," the man said to Gingka "Huh?"

"It's your stop."

Gingka suddenly noticed they had stopped. "Oh heheh, what do ya know, it is!" He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "Come on Masamune!" He jumped up and ran for the doors. Buses really sucked.

"Hey wait up!" Masamune shouted jumping up and running to catch up. While he was running he missed a foot that was sticking partially into the aisle, and tripped over it. "Owwww." He said, looking up. When he did he looked straight into the eyes of the black haired teenager.

"You're on my foot." His voice was deep and his eyes were cold. Masamune could just hear traces of heavy metal music playing from his earphones.

"Sorry about that." Masamune started to get up but stopped halfway "Hey, why am I apologizing to you?" He glared at the guy who glared back just as hard "It was your stupid foot that tripped me!"

Gingka stopped halfway off the bus and face palmed.

The guy grabbed Masamune's collar and jerked him the rest of the way up, standing up himself in the process. "Well you should watch where you're going brat!" He shoved Masamune down into the chairs on the opposite row.

Masamune wondered how the guy had even heard him, until he realized one of his earphones was out. He hopped back up and was about to shout something back at him until Gingka slapped a hand over his mouth and smiled. "Sorry 'bout that, my friend here is due at the mental hospital, so we hafta go." He yanked a protesting Masamune out of the bus, leaving the teen in black to stare after them menacingly.

Once the two were outside the bus, the doors shut and it started to move again, then Gingka removed his hand and Masamune glared at him "What was that for!?"

"You would've gotten us in trouble! You always do!"

"Not any more than you do!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Hey boys, I hate to break up this little love fest, but you wouldn't happen to be Gingka Hagane and Masamune Kadoya would you?" The two stopped and looked up at a tall perfectly proportioned woman with a suit on.

"Um, yeah, and who are you?" Gingka asked.

"You can call me Saiyo. Now come with me." She put her hands on their shoulders and started basically pushing them down the sidewalk.

"Hey, what are you doing? Where are we going?"

"I'm escorting you to your next location." She said stopping at a small red sports car. She opened the door "Get in."

Gingka and Masamune looked at each other. Then they shrugged and climbed into the cramped back seat. By the time they had gotten in, Saiyo had also gotten in. She revved the engine, and the car suddenly jerked into motion, tires squealing and music blaring.

They pulled up beside a beach that had a small beach house sitting elevated above the sand. Saiyo cut the engine and slid smoothly out, wordlessly gesturing for them to do the same. The two boys squeezed out and slammed her car doors, making her cringe visibly. "Must you slam the doors?" She put a hand to her forehead then shook her head and started walking in the direction of the beach house. Gingka couldn't help but wonder how she could walk on sand in those high heels.

She walked up the steps and slid a key into the door. The door made a clicking sound before it opened to reveal another door. A metal door. It had a keypad and she typed something into it then said "Notre Dame protects all who seek shelter." The door slowly slid open and Saiyo walked inside, her high heels clicking loudly on the hard floor.

"What are you waiting for?" she looked back at the boys moodily. The gaping boys managed to follow her into the room. It was significantly less impressive: it just looked like a normal beach house.

After the two had stepped inside Saiyo smirked and said "Computer, activate safe house." The whirring of machines could be heard as metal blinds shut over the window, cameras came out everywhere, and a hidden door opened.

"Wow…" Gingka muttered.

"This is so awesome!" Masamune shouted.

"It is isn't it?" Saiyo said "If you need me, I'll be in there." She pointed to the door that had been hidden. "You can go anywhere you want to, since I control where you go. Remember as long as you're here you're completely safe, it's a literal fortress."

**MWM**

A shadowy figure shuffled down a dark street next to a beach with a single beach house on it. Several people bumped into him, but didn't as much as glance at him. He continued making his way down the street until he reached a phone booth outside a gas station. He glanced around before hurriedly getting into the phone booth and dialing a number.

"Hello?" a voice spoke through the phone.

"Hey, this is Jake."

"Jake! I'm glad you called, how's it going?"

"I saw them on the bus."

"You did? Your mission was successful then?" The voice took on an unmistakably more businesslike tone.

"More than just successful, one of the brats tried to pick a fight with me."

They laughed. "That was expectedly stupid of them!"

"Yeah I would've pulverized him."

"Heh, I know. You did well! Go back to America; I'll take care of the rest."

"Ok, see you soon."

"Yeah, bye."

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><p><strong>I<strong> **hope that was good! It might be a little longer before my next update because I'm going against the original rule I made about not doing more than two stories at once because I have these two other stories in my head dying to be written. It's not so bad though, because my other story is kind of on hiatus and I'm only going to write one of my new stories right now.**

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><p><strong>Comment replies:<strong>

**Dazardz: I'm glad you liked it!**

**Darknessrules: You're welcome! But really, I thank you for reading and liking my story, not to mention reviewing! (and don't worry you did spell that right. )**

**Starless Skyline: Wow thanks! I'm too much of a coward to do my original ideas for my first attempt, so to start off I'm basing it off of the vocaloid daughter of evil series. I'm not sure I'll actually ever try to get it published or anything, it's really just a good "shove off" piece. I'm 15 but I skipped a grade and started school a year early, so the average age is about 17. I have to ask (if you don't mind) What country do you live in?**

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><p><strong>I hope to update soon! Please continue to read, I'm really starting to get to the exciting part!<strong>


	10. And then there were none

**Okay so here's the next chapter! Yay! Sorry it took so long to update but me being the stupid person I am started not one, but two new stories even though I promised myself that I would only do two stories at once. Then there's also the normal life stuff, including mid-terms and a thousand essays and art and music and etc. But enough of my excuses, enjoy!**

**You should be glad to know I just bought Beyblade so I totally own it! …yeah we all know that's gonna happen.**

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><p>Saiyo rubbed her temples and focused back on the security screens in front of her. So far, each of the attempts on the kids had been exactly a week apart, and all of the kidnappings had taken place at night. It had been seven days since Tsubasa Otori's abduction. She wasn't expecting anything to happen just yet since it was only eight in the morning, but you can never be too safe.<p>

Saiyo sighed and fingered a strand of her shoulder length, dark brown hair. After hesitating a moment she picked up the phone. She wasn't going to fail her job; she would make sure these two boys made it safely through the day. To make sure that happened back-up would be necessary.

**MWM**

Gingka was laying spread eagle on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. "I'm so bored!" he muttered.

Masamune continued bouncing the small ball he'd found against the window, neither of them paying any attention to the TV that was playing the local news. They'd both lost all interest in the programs playing on the available stations after the first five days.

"What do you want to do?" Masamune asked. At first they'd tried finding a way to escape the safe house, but after the first three days and a couple of bruises from booby traps, they'd given up.

"We could try to escape again." Gingka suggested from his position on the floor. "Maybe we could make the phone work." There was a phone, but it had the buttons altered so that you couldn't press them, so the phone was only good for incoming calls.

"None of that'll work." Masamune snorted, bouncing the ball a little too hard off the window and making it fly past him. He stood up and walked to the couch where he flopped down unhappily. Boredom was one of the worst tortures that could ever be implemented.

Gingka stood and walked towards the window. When he looked out he noticed a familiar face amongst the crowd. "What?!" he shouted when he saw who it was.

"What's wrong?" Masamune shouted, running to join Gingka at the window, glad for any distraction from the monotony of the safe house.

"I, I saw him!" Gingka murmured. The face that had been staring up from the crowd on the beach had disappeared back into the crowd. Gingka was searching for the face again but couldn't find it; he seemed to have just disappeared.

"Saw who?" Masamune began looking for anyone he knew in the crowd.

"It…it was Damian!"

**WMW**

Tsubasa grunted as he attempted to move a little. It was no use. They had been locked up in the very top of the out of use lighthouse. The lighthouse was very old, and didn't even have an electronic light in it. It had been out of use so long that the last time it had been used fire still provided the light. Looking around it seemed to Tsubasa that the light house had been converted into some sort of prison. This was because of the chains that dangled from the walls, one of which held his wrists over his head against the wall.

A sigh coming from the direction of the floor caught his attention and he looked down. The sigh had come from Yu. Yu and Madoka we're both chained up but they weren't attached to the wall; he was glad they weren't tall enough to be locked up in the same manner he was. Tsubasa looked down at the sleeping Yu and hoped he was having a good dream. If he had to guess he would say Yu was having a good dream because he was sleeping peacefully. He felt relieved that Yu at least had some peace.

A clanging sound coming from the hatch on the floor that concealed the stairs woke Madoka and Yu from their peaceful sleep.

Yu yawned and stretched the best he could manage with his shackles on, and then glared at the source of the noise. The food they served here was good enough, but he enjoyed his sleeping and did not appreciate being woken from it.

Madoka slowly woke from her sleep and slid out of the strange position she had somehow worked herself into as she slept. The hatch opened and one of the gray clad guards climbed in carrying their food on a tray. It was eggs, bacon, and a fairly good southern American breakfast food called grits. At first the three had thought these grits were strange. They seemed to be tiny little grains of something all stuck together and smothered in butter and salt. It had taken a bit to get used to them, but once they did they found grits fairly delicious.

The guard sat the tray of food down and glared at them. Madoka guessed he didn't enjoy being reduced to a waiter much. The short man then pulled out a set of keys and unlocked them, Madoka first, then Yu, then Tsubasa, who slowly slid down the wall into a sitting position and began rubbing his wrists. In his position locked to the wall Tsubasa hadn't gotten much sleep in the last week, and it was showing, mostly by the bags under his eyes.

Madoka picked up her fork and began eating her food, eggs first. Yu started to eat his bacon but stopped and looked at Tsubasa who was still rubbing his bruised wrists tiredly. Tsubasa usually took the time he had left after eating during their one hour food breaks to sleep, since it was almost impossible to do so while locked up. Madoka was fairly certain he'd probably passed out a few times from exhaustion.

"Are you okay Tsubasa?" Yu asked quietly, crawling over to him instead of getting up from his seat on the floor.

Tsubasa looked at Yu for a minute, his tired state of mind making things take longer to make sense. "Yeah, I'm fine Yu, just tired." His voice was quiet and did sound very tired.

Yu frowned and stood up, then brought his food over and sat beside Tsubasa. When Yu looked up at Tsubasa again, he saw he'd fallen asleep. Yu continued to look up at his friend worriedly. Tsubasa didn't look so good, even to Yu.

Madoka looked at Yu who was now eating in a subdued looking way next to Tsubasa who had already fallen asleep. She then looked at Tsubasa and silently hoped that he would be okay. She was no medical expert but even she knew that it took more than a couple weeks to get over a gun-shot wound in your chest, not to mention his recent lack of sleep. Madoka silently prayed that Tsubasa would be okay, and someone would save them soon.

**MWM**

Saiyo sighed and squeezed her earlobe, blinking furiously at the monitors before her. She'd been staring at them all day and it was beginning to have an effect on her eyes. She had men stationed in key points all over the house. If something didn't happen tonight she would be very surprised.

**WMW**

It was somewhere slightly past 11pm. Most of the streets were devoid of people and were quiet. That was good. The last thing they wanted tonight was for people to notice them. They stopped when they reached their destination. The power lines. It was dangerous to cut a power line, but it was also the most sure and easiest way to cut power off from that building people called a safe house.

'Heh, I'll show you how safe you are.' They thought to theirself and began pulling the tools they'd brought to cut the wire out.

**MWM**

Saiyo growled angrily as she began prying the door open. She'd been right, the culprit was making their move on the seventh night. She'd not predicted their turning the power off however.

"Open darn it!" she yelled angrily at the door making another attempt to squeeze her fingers through the tiny crack. Luckily her backup was there and would have a pretty good idea what to do, but she still needed to be out there with them. If anything happened to those two boys it would be entirely her fault.

**WMW**

"What's that sound?" Gingka asked, squinting his eyes in an attempt to pierce the darkness engulfing the room.

A loud crash came from the other end of the room and made Gingka jump. "OWOWOWOWOWOWOW!" Masamune shouted pulling himself up, and being careful not to run into the small table he'd just fell over.

"Oh, it's just you." He couldn't help but feel on edge. All of the others had disappeared and it wasn't hard to figure out that someone was after them too.

Masamune grunted and rubbed his knee where he'd fallen. "Of course it's me! I just tripped over the stupid table 'cause it's so dark!"

"Wait! Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" his question was instantly answer by a blood curdling scream coming from outside.

**MWM**

When Saiyo heard the screams she paused for just a second before vigorously kicking at the door. Why did they have to make this stupid door so tough!?

**WMW**

They laughed evilly to theirself as they walked towards the agent they had just killed. The unfortunate man had noticed their presence but only in time to scream before he was silenced forever. They didn't particularilly want to kill anyone so they proceeded as quietly as they could. Since they'd cut the power and no cameras could record them, it didn't really matter so much, but if they ran into anyone they'd have to kill them.

They climbed up to the bottom of the house using one the stilts and clinging to it with one hand unscrewed the vent located there. After they'd unscrewed it they let go of the beam, leaving only their legs wrapped around it and grabbed the edge of the vent, pulling theirself inside.

**MWM**

Saiyo looked around the hidden room frantically. There had to be something there that she could use to get out. She spotted the little metal office chair and tried to shove one leg through the crack. No good. She threw the chair and it hit one of the monitors, smashing it. Then she got an idea.

**WMW**

"Did you hear that crash?" Masamune asked looking nervously in the direction of the door. It was pitch black in the house due to the mechanical blinds blocking out any lights that might have come in from the outside.

"Yeah." Gingka whispered, his voice sounding intrusive in the mostly undisturbed silence.

A slight light shining down the hall caught the two boy's attention. They looked at each other but remained silent. The light moved down the hall and steadily became brighter until a figure in a black coat stopped in front of the door to their room and shined a flashlight around the inside. It stopped moving when it hit two sets of hair sticking out from behind a chair.

"Found you."

"What?!" Masamune shouted and jumped out from behind the chair. "How did you see us?!"

"It's not hard with that hair." The person retorted, snorting a bit. "Now you'll be coming with me."

"No way!" Gingka shouted joining Masamune out from behind the chair.

"What you don't want to see your friends?" They pulled out two cloths and poured some liquid onto them. "They're dying to see you." They laughed a bit and moved towards the boys.

"What did you do to them!?" Gingka shouted suddenly very worried for his friends.

"Jeez relax, I haven't really done anything yet." They had almost reached them, both clothes held ready, flashlight left on the table Masamune had tripped over. In a quick smooth movement the person had covered the two boy's faces with the cloths and they barely had time to make a sound before the chloroform on the cloths had knocked them out. As the two boys collapsed on the ground, the person laughed and whispered to theirself "And then there were none."

**MWM**

Saiyo grunted as the door finally opened enough for her to shove her hands through the cracks and force the door open. It had taken smashing the computer and using the side of the monitor as a wedge before she had managed to get the door open enough.

She raced down the hallway and to the room the boys had last been in. She stood just inside the door and glanced around. There was a flashlight lying on the table and nosign of the teens. They were gone. She had failed.

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><p><strong>So not the longest chapter in the world I know, but now I can get to the next piece of the story. Next chapter I'll reveal the bad guy, so look for that. Anyway can you believe I wrote this while watching a tv show about little kittens and puppies? It's weird.<strong>

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><p><strong>Comment replies<strong>

**Starless Skyline: You're right, I have heard of Serbia but couldn't tell you where it is. You sound very patriotic! Thats a good thing! I'm patriotic too. America has it's problems but everywhere else does too, so I think I'm pretty well off. :) You're right about the originality thing, and you should be interested to know I decided to do one of my own original ideas! I'll just have to do my best and see how it goes.**

**Darknessrules: I'm glad you like it so much, and I do apologize for the shortness of this chapter. But you should be glad to know that now I'm getting to the parts I'm more excited for and might end up updating quicker. :)**

**KiariCat: Hee hee, I love him too!**


	11. It was you?

**Well folks, it's all going to be revealed in this chapter. Sorry for the wait, but hopefully this makes up for it. And seriously, wow! Over 2,000 views! I'm so happy! And now, if you want, and I get up to 50 reviews, whoever gives me the 50th review can have a one-shot! I'll give more specific details on that later, to whoever wins it.**

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><p>Gingka groaned as he slowly sat up. He had a headache that made his head feel like it was going to split. He could hear a slight buzzing sound and the ground he was sitting on felt like it was vibrating. He tried to look around but his eyes were blurry so he had to blink a couple times first before the room came into focus.<p>

He was in a room that was probably five feet by five feet. The walls were shiny and metallic looking, as was the bed-if you could call it that, it was more like a plate of metal sticking out of the wall- and a toilet and a sink. In short, it looked like a small prison cell.

He rubbed his head and looked around the small room again. He blinked a couple times, wondering if he was seeing things wrong, but nothing changed. He wasn't seeing things.

He vaguely remembered someone attacking him and Masamune, but nothing after that. Then he realized that the person must have kidnapped them! So… where was he? Were the others there? How long had he been here? Who had kidnapped him?

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange sound that sounded somewhat like air being forced out of a pressurized container through a small hole. He turned and looked at the door which was opening. That must have been what was making the noise.

A man in a plain gray uniform stood in the hallway outside the door and motioned for him to come over. When he didn't comply quickly enough for the man's liking, he grabbed him harshly by the arm and dragged him into the hallway. The man didn't pause long enough for Gingka to get his footing, so he stumbled clumsily along behind him, still not completely recovered from his induced blackout.

They finally came to a stop at a door. The man opened it and shoved Gingka through in front of him, then walked him to the middle of the room and stood behind him. A few seconds later an identical guard emerged through another door dragging a loudly complaining Masamune. Behind them Madoka was being pushed forward by a guard as well, but she was being quiet. The door that Gingka had been practically thrown through opened again and let out Yu, who was screaming his lungs out yelling insults and complaints at the man who was carrying him under his armpit through the door. Behind them Tsubasa was walking quietly in front of a guard, carefully scrutinizing his surroundings.

Once the other four had been dragged, walked, or carried to the middle of the room and been made into a straight line Gingka tried to talk to Masamune, who was the only person near him. "Hey Masamune, you okay?" He asked.

He felt something hit the side of his head somewhat harshly. He rubbed the spot that had been hit and turned to glare at the guy behind him "What was that for?" he shouted angrily.

"Be quiet!" The dark haired man said with a dangerous look in his dark eyes. Gingka turned back around and decided it might be wise to obey him. For once.

"Yeah I'm fine." Masamune whispered, receiving a glare from his guard but nothing else.

Gingka couldn't describe the relief he felt at seeing his friends looking unharmed. Now that he had thoroughly examined his comrades he decided to do the same to his environment. They seemed to be in a large room with a dome ceiling that was shaped like a teardrop with the tip cut off and a door there. The walls were painted a cream color as was the ceiling, except for a stripe of black that seemed to circle the room, from wall to wall, and ceiling to floor, connecting at the door on where the tip would be, and the middle door in the back. There were three doors in the back, one more to the right painted white, one more towards the left also painted white, then one perfectly in the middle painted black. The one that none of them had come from. He'd seen inside the one on the left because that's where he'd come from, and he'd seen the beginning of the one on the right because the others had come from it. But as far as he had seen inside it looked the same as the one he'd come from. He had a dark feeling that what was behind the black door was not the same at all.

He was brought out of his thoughts by the opening of the door at the tip of the raindrop room –as he'd decided to call it. He didn't see past the guy who walked in, but he didn't bother trying after he saw who it was. "You! What are you doing here?" Gingka had shouted at the same time as Masamune.

The black clad teen snorted and walked towards them lazily, hands tucked into his pocket and one earphone in his ear and the other out. Today he was wearing a long sleeve T-shirt that was black and grey striped with a black T-shirt over it, a black beanie hat over his black hair, ragged black pants and black combat boots. Apparently this guy liked black. The only things on him that weren't black were his skin, the white stripes on his shirt, and his earphones. Even his eyes were dark. Well, his teeth were exceptionally white. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't be here. Brat." He added the last part after seeming to think for a second.

"Hey shut up you-!" Masamune was cut off mid sentence by the looming teen's hand slapping his face.

"Show some respect you! There's no one here to protect you! I can do whatever I want to you now, and no one will ever care!" He smirked at the look of confusion that momentarily crossed Masamune's face, and then changed to anger, then back to confusion. The guy snorted at Masamune's uncertainty then walked past the others, ignoring Yu altogether, pausing at Madoka then giving her a flirty smile and winking at her which she didn't like at all, when he got to Tsubasa he narrowed his eyes and stood still for a minute, and Tsubasa returned the look. The guy was an inch or two taller than Tsubasa but he clearly considered Tsubasa some sort of opponent, and apparently Tsubasa felt the same towards him. They finished sizing each other up and the teen dressed in black broke the stare and turned dramatically, making his was back towards the door.

He was halfway back to the door when it opened again. It let in a girl with blue waist length hair and blue eyes. Gingka thought she looked familiar at first, but after he looked at the other's faces he knew he had to have seen her before. Masamune didn't look much different than he had before, but Madoka looked surprised as did Tsubasa, and Yu seemed a little confused.

Gingka suddenly remembered where he'd seen her before; she was that girl on the plane! She was dressed differently than before, now wearing a pair of white pants instead of a skirt, a plain black T-shirt, and black strappy high heels. She also had a gold necklace on. 'What was her name?' Gingka wondered 'Daria? Danielle? Daisy?'

"Diana?" Madoka said questioningly. Aha. That was it.

Diana ignored Madoka and as she passed the boy in black, he grabbed her arm and leaned down to plant a kiss on her lips which she returned. "Hey baby I missed you."

"Yeah I missed you too Jake." She said, smiling for a moment before finishing her walk towards the line-up of bladers, followed by the newly named Jake.

Madoka followed Diana's ever move carefully. Everything about her seemed different than it had only a day ago. From the way she walked into the room, to the way she greeted that boy. Something was up. It was almost as if someone had flipped a switch. She had a feeling she wouldn't like this new Diana, and a darker feeling that something was seriously weird about her.

Diana gave a slight nod with her head and all of the guards standing behind them walked back into the halls they had come from. At almost the same time the black door opened and let four guys in black hooded robes out that came and stood behind Diana and Jake.

"Diana what… what is this?" Madoka asked, sounding very confused. She just didn't get it. What was going on? Now that the five of them were all together, what was going to happen? What was with Diana? And why was it happening?

Diana smiled a creepy, fake looking smile, and that strange, tiny bit of a gleam Madoka had noticed in her eyes before became much stronger. Madoka was beginning to get a little scared. "What, haven't you figured it out yet?" Diana asked in a tone that sounded somewhat mocking.

"I don't understand." Madoka said quietly. She glanced at Yu, who seemed just as irritated as normal, then at Tsubasa who'd narrowed his eyes at Diana, and seemed to have a pretty good idea of what was going on. Or at least he didn't seem as confused as her.

"No, of course you don't. See Jake, I told you I haven't lost my touch."

For a moment Jake looked like he was going to argue, but then he decided otherwise "It sure seems like you haven't."

"So, you want to know what's going on." Diana said. It was a statement, not a question. After waiting a minute and getting only silence in reply she continued "I guess I'll tell you then. If you haven't noticed already you've been kidnapped."

"No, duh! Even Masamumu could figure that one out!" Yu shouted at her, receiving a harsh glare.

"Anyway," she continued "If you're wondering who kidnapped you, it was me." She received several raised eyebrows at that. "If you don't believe me just ask them." She motioned at the men in black behind her.

"But didn't you say that they were the ones that kidnapped us?" Madoka was thoroughly confused.

"I did. I was lying. Excepting the reason for your kidnapping, I was telling the truth the rest of the time. They do work for me, and my grandmother was the head of a secret society that's all about power. But she's been dead for quite some time now, so I guess that was kind of a lie too. Oh well. But yeah, I kidnapped you. _I_ hired that assassin that shot Tsubasa and almost Masamune, and killed him when he failed. Although I'm actually glad he did. _I_ climbed that mountain, set those traps, and caught Madoka and Yu. _I_ waited for Tsubasa outside the theatre and demolished that policeman's shoulder. _I_ broke into that safe house and grabbed Gingka and Masamune. I did it all."

Madoka was shocked to say the least. She'd never expected that. Diana had seemed so nice. But now she seemed sinister, insane even. To come up with those demented traps Madoka guessed she really had to have been at least slightly insane.

Everyone stood in silence for a few minutes until Tsubasa finally broke the silence "So now that you have us, what do you plan to do with us?"

Madoka squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn't really sure she wanted to know. At any rate, it couldn't be anything good. It's not like anybody would kidnap people just to have a cup of coffee with them or something. No matter what Diana had planned for them, Madoka was sure she wouldn't like it.

Diana smiled evilly "That's where things get fun." Suddenly it was as if someone had lifted a curtain. Madoka finally figured out what she'd been trying to for the last two weeks. She knew exactly who this girl was, she knew who the boy in the picture was, and she knew why Diana was doing this.

**MWM**

Kyouya stormed down the street causing a wave of people to move as he did. He wasn't in a very good mood. He'd just found out Gingka and Masamune had been kidnapped as well as Tsubasa, Madoka, and Yu. No one was allowed to kill Gingka, at least not yet. Not until he'd beaten him. Gingka was his rival, one of his reasons to work so hard at his blading. He wouldn't let Gingka just disappear.

"Where are we going Kyouya?" Nile asked, walking to his right and ever so slightly behind him.

"We're going to go get some people."

"And then?"

"Then were going to go find Gingka."

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><p><strong>Well here's this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it! And please, please, please review!<strong>

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><p><strong>Review replies:<strong>

**GalaxyPegasus14: Thank you!**

**Dazardz: Thank you. Nah, that's not stupid, I really know what you mean.**

**Song Of Hope: …So, how long have you been in mind? I've totally been planning to make the teams (or some of them at least) team up and… nevermind. No spoiler policy and all. Anyways thanks for reading!**

**Starless Skyline: I'm sure you can do it! Well, no one in my family (excluding one cousin, but he doesn't count anyway) and none of my friends know that I write fanfiction. It's not really so hard, all you need is an email account. Just click on the thing at the top that says Sign Up then put in a username, your email, and a password, then click sign up. If you don't have, or need a new email address, just go to Gmail or wherever you want and make a new account. You can even use a fake name if you need to. If you have any questions about anything else I'll do my best to answer them.**

**Megan Veir: Thank you! I intend to.**


	12. Lost friends and oddities

**Wow, sorry for the long-time-no-update! I promise I had intended to update within a few weeks of the last chapter but... anyway here's my list of excuses: First I had to decorate my house for Christmas (which takes at least one whole day) then I had to update One by One and then some of my family came over so I had to hang out with them, then I got sick and when I got better my cat got super sick from eating garland (some of which we had to take down after that. Then after all that happened we went to Georgia to see some more family and then when we got back I had a tone of studying to do for finals, and around this same time we had a major family tragedy (No one died or anything, but I'm pretty sure someone's going to end up murdered by the end of it. Yeah, the involved parties are insane. All of them) and it's really been affecting my grandparents more than anyone else, so I've been spending a lot of time with them too. I also wrote a special for Thanksgiving and am in the process of writing a 12 chapter Christmas special. Oh, and today I had surgery done on my toe! Well, normal people don't consider having warts burned off your toe surgery but it's "officially" surgery, so I won't fight with the doctors. But it sure hurts enough to be surgery.**

**Anyway enough of my problems, congrats to Starlit Skyline for winning the one-shot, after I finish this story I'll give you some guidelines for that and you can tell me what you want.**

**I don't own Beyblade, or anything else for that matter!**

"Did you all notice that room in the middle?" Diana asked, pointing to the black door behind them. Although they had all noticed it already they went ahead and looked again.

"What's it for?" Yu asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know!" Jake laughed at Yu.

"Shut up!" She glared at Jake, who rolled his eyes and looked away. "It is where a lot of a schedule I have planned for all of you will take place." Diana smiled. To all of the young bladers, there was something wrong about her smile, twisted even. "Follow me and I will explain it all." She walked to the black door, took out a set of keys and unlocked it. She then switched a light, and held the door open for them to walk through.

The room was dark with one bright light right in the middle. Underneath the light was a metal mechanical table with straps on it. Jake walked in behind all the rest and flipped another switch that lit up the entire room.

Fear gripped Tsubasa's stomach when he saw what all was in the room. To him, it looked like something out of a horror movie, sharp-looking tools of all shapes and sizes covered the walls. Something that sort of looked like a welding tool hung next to a water hose close to the table. There was something on a hook next to a whip that he couldn't place. It looked like a metal rod, and he had no clue what it might do, but it definitely wasn't good.

"So if you three boys" Diana said, conspicuously leaving out Tsubasa and Madoka "haven't realized this already, this is my torture chamber. Well, chamber sounds a bit old fashioned doesn't it? I'll have to come up with something else to call it…" she said, the end sounding more like she was talking to herself. "Oh well. Your… I guess I'll call it suffering, will take place mostly here, unless I have a special sport planned for the day."

Tsubasa closed his eyes and groaned inwardly at the word suffering. He knew it. A room like this could only be for torturing. But why would she want to hurt them? They'd never even met her before this whole thing started.

"Don't worry, I won't beat all of you everyday just one of you, and we will go in a regular cycle; one person per day, every day." The way she was talking made Madoka sick. It sounded like a doctor talking to their patient about taking medicine or something. "I was about starting with-"

"Me first!" Gingka shouted at her before she could finish. She cocked one eyebrow at him. "I'll take the first day."

Diana laughed loudly "You think you have a choice!? Oh wow that's just great!" she and Jake continued to laugh for a few more seconds.

Gingka frowned at her "Why shouldn't I go first?"

"To be honest, I was thinking about making you go first, but since that's what you want anyway there's no way I'll let that happen." She smirked savagely at the redhead then shifted her gaze to Madoka "Actually I think I'll go with the ladies first policy." Madoka gasped, sending Diana into another small fit of laughter. "After that I think I'll go from the shortest to the tallest, which means Madoka, Yu, Masamune, Gingka, and then Tsubasa. What do you think Gingka? That work for you?" Jake snorted in an effort to keep back a laugh at the look on Gingka's face. "But don't worry today I have a special sport planned for you!"

**WMW**

Kyoya surveyed the small group of world class bladers he had managed to gather. There weren't as many as he hoped may be willing to help, but it was about the amount he had expected. He hadn't been able to find a few of them in a day or call them and get them to show up in Japan, so some of the people he knew would help weren't there either. Naturally there was him, Nile, Demure, and Benkei, but in addition to them there was the entire Chinese and Russian team, and Kenta. It wasn't as many as he'd been hoping for, but there wasn't anything he could do.

"Ok all of you listen up!" Kyoya snapped, gaining the attention of all the rag-tag group's members. "You know why we're here right?"

"To save Gingka!" Kenta shouted, ready for anything.

"Kyoya, what exactly do you plan to do?" Aleksei asked, pushing his glasses up. "We have no idea where they are, and by the looks of things, neither do the police."

"I-uh, er, eh ga-"Nowaguma started.

"What Nowaguma is trying to say is even if we can find them you losers wouldn't be strong enough to beat them!" Lera snorted in her loud way.

"First off no back talking! Glasses, hack into the police network and get any information they have." Aleksei rolled his eyes and pulled out his laptop, wondering how exactly he was going to do this. "Everyone else come here." Kyoya said while pulling out a map of the city. "From what Hikaru told me the last place they were was right…" he held out the last word, sliding his finger down the map until he stopped at a beach. "here. We will start from this point and spread out. You two" he pointed at Benkei and Kenta "Will explore this area" he circled it with a red marker "Chao, Demure and Mei-Mei will cover this area" he circled another area in a green marker "Dashan and Chi-yun will take this area" he circled another section in blue "Lera and Nowaguma will go here," he circled another section in yellow "And Nile and I will take the rest." He looked back up at them "Understand?" he paused for a moment and surveyed his fellow bladers who all nodded "Okay good, let's go." Without waiting for anyone he walked out the door followed by Nile, and then all the others.

**MWM**

"So, are you all ready for our first game?!" The five bladers looked around them. Shortly after the little "speech" that Diana had given them the gray clad guards had ushered them to a set of steps that led them up to this platform. Once they were up there, the guards had pointed out colored squares on the floor, one dark blue, one sky blue, one purple, one pink, and one green. They were arranged in a star shape, and there were blue walls that went high over their heads with several small doorways that surrounded them. If it weren't for the extremely tall ceiling it would have made Madoka feel slightly claustrophobic. Diana was now speaking to them through a loudspeaker and her voice was echoing around the room.

"I suppose I'll tell you about it first!" Even without seeing her, they could hear the insane excitement in her voice. "All of you have to get on a square before we can start." Gingka moved to the nearest square, determined to get this thing over with. As he stepped on the green square he received a shock that sent a tingling feeling all through him.

"What was that?!" He yelled at the ceiling.

"Tsk tsk Gingka, you didn't let me completely explain~! You each have a specific color assignment for the squares, so go ahead and think about it otherwise you will get a nice little shock!" Her chuckles echoed around the warehouse-like room.

Madoka decided it was likely that the pink square was hers since she was the only girl and there was no sense at all in any of the others having that one. Having decided this, she tentatively touched the square with one shoe. Nothing happened. More confident now, she stepped completely onto the square and sighed in relief when nothing happened.

Gingka saw Madoka take her square and examined the ones left. There was the green square, which obviously wasn't his, the purple square, the dark blue square, and the light blue square. He hadn't yet decided which to try when Masamune jumped onto the dark blue one. He quickly shrieked and jumped back off, sending Yu into a fit of laughter even at a time like this. It seemed Tsubasa had analyzed the colors next to the people and went to stand on the purple one. Nothing happened. "Masamune, I believe the green one is yours, the dark blue on+e would be Gingka's, and Yu has the light blue one." They each took the spot Tsubasa had said was theirs and to their relief none of them had gotten shocked.

"Hmph. Thanks a lot Tsubasa. Oh well, let's get this thing started!" Her voice took on a higher excited pitch as walls separating the five teens slowly came out of the floor. They each exchanged nervous glances before their views of the others were cut off. "The rest of the rules are simple: It's a maze. When the squares you're standing on light up go through the door ways in front of you. There are also little surprises for you if you go the wrong way in some cases, so I'd be careful if I were you. Whoever gets out first wins! I don't think there's going to be a prize but there will be a punishment if you don't go, got it? Good! On your mark, get set, go!"

The squares lit up and Tsubasa walked off of the square and towards the doorway. Once inside he saw he could go forward or left. He stood still for a moment and then decided to take the left route, proceeding carfully.

**WMW**

"So what if we don't find anything Kyoya?" Nile asked while scanning the city streets with his eyes. He really didn't know what he was looking for, but he looked anyway.

"We'll find something." Kyoya wasn't one to accept defeat. Not that Nile really was either, but they had been looking for hours and hadn't found anything yet.

"How do you…" Nile trailed off when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. "Hey is that-?" before he could finish Kyoya saw it too and frowned.

"Damian." Kyoya pushed through the crowd quickly, heading in the smaller boy's direction. If that phyco brat was there, he definitely had something to do with it.

**MWM**

Madoka walked quickly through the walls of the maze and wondered how big it was. She'd been walking for quite a while and was completely turned around so the maze had to be pretty big. So far she hadn't run into any of the little "surprises" that Diana had said were placed in some places, which she was extremely grateful for, but if she couldn't find her way out soon she was sure that luck would change.

Her suspicions were confermed after she turned the next corner a little too fast. There was a hole in the floor, and about five feet down there was blood, enough to submerge her entire body. She screamed as she fell in.

**WMW**

"Damian!" Kyoya shouted angrily, grabbing the blue haired boy's shoulder and forcibly turning him around.

"Well Kyoya it's been a while hasn't it?" Damian said in a sarcastic tone.

"Gingka, Madoka, Tsubasa, Yu, and Masamune have disappeared, and I know you had something to do with it!" Kyoya crossed his arms and snarled at the boy.

"Oh really? That's nice to know. Maybe they'll all die!"

"Where are they?!" Kyoya had no intention of dealing with the little twerps antics right now.

"Psh! How should I know? I didn't do anything to them, although if I get a chance one day I'll show them just what I can do."

Kyoya grabbed Damian by his collar and jerked him up, pulling his fist back "Tell me where they are right now, or I promise you I'll show you a world that your hell can't even compare to!"

"Seriously? You think your stupid fist can cause more pain than hell can?" he snickered at Kyoya and quickly received a fist in his face.

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><p><strong>Sorry it's so short, and for the weird ending. I was going to add more, but then I decided I would rather just get it updated because after my family (the same family we <em>just<em> visited in Georgia) gets here tonight there won't be much peace for me. So sorry. And I just wanted to say goodbye, I hope you had a nice life, and I'm sorry this story isn't finished yet since the world ends today. (Sorry I had to do it.)**

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><p><strong>Comment replies:<strong>

**Starlit/less Skyline: _I'm glad you liked it, and I had no idea that Daria and Jordan are Serbian names! I actually have been to Chicago twice but that doesn't really mean much since Chicago is a huge city. _****_America... well let's see... the easiest way too describe us as a culture would be a major mash of all cultures in the world. We're really and truely a little bit of everything, and there's not much else to say about that. But since we're such a big country we have lots of reigons that have an outstanding culture of their own. I for one, live in the southeast known here as just "the south." I like it here, but the weather is almost always warm. In the summer the hotter days can reach 110 degrees (Farenheit) or more, and on Christmas day it's supposed to be 65-75 degrees. I almost never wear long sleeves. The culture here is predominately Christian. Most everyone you meet here will be Christian in some way shape or form. I am an Apostolic Pentecostal Christian. Pentecostal is a branch of Christian, and Apostolic is a branch of Pentecostal. We are a very small group overall, but when you see us we're usually pretty easy to spot. What religion are you? Or do you have a religion? There are also other groups of people, one of which is Rednecks. They are loud, obnoxious, rude, usually foul smelling, usually not so intelligent people and they usually live in the country. It's also typical for them to love Nascar, guns, and cars. Another group is jigaboo. Some people consider that a bad word, or a racist term, but I see it as a catagory of people. They are loud, obnoxious, rude (very rude) sometimes cruel, self-consumed, self-righteous people who think that everything is owed to them and they shouldn't have to work at all. They are typically brown (I don't call them black because their skin is not black, and I don't call them African Americans unless they actually come from Africa or their parents are from Africa and they still go back occasionally. Most people who call themselves that have never even seen Africa.) but not always. But at any rate, I am extremely patriotic and I adore the song "I am Proud to be an American" and "Stars and Stripes Forever" and of course the National Anthem. American History is my favorite subject in school. I don't however like our president who isn't even legally president. I love my country deeply and everything we stood for._ **

**Guest: OH no! Don't do that! lol. I'm glad you like it!**

**Fouts Girl: Wow, I'm glad you like it so much! I hope I can keep it up. :)**

**leo: I'm happy you thought so, and I'm sorry it took so long. Hopefully the next one will be up soon.**


	13. The insane maze

A scream resounded around the warehouse. It was a girl's scream so it had to be Madoka. Tsubasa looked up quickly. It sounded like it was right next to him, like she was on the other side of the wall on his right. He ran over to it and looked up towards the top. If he could help Madoka he needed to.

Tsubasa bit his lip and jumped, reaching for the top of the wall. On the first attempt his fingers barely caught it and he fell back to the ground. On the second try, he got a better grasp and managed to throw one leg over the wall, and then the other.

He let go. And fell a lot farther than he was expecting to. He was surprised when he found himself submerged in water. He took a deep gulp of air when his head broke the surface and he looked around. The water he was in was red. For a moment he thought maybe it was blood but the consistency and taste in his mouth proved it was only water dyed with food coloring, not blood. Madoka didn't seem to realize that though. She was standing near one of the walls as if she had fallen there then stood up and didn't move again, and her hands were covering her face.

"Madoka are you okay?" He asked, wading his way over to her.

"Ts-Tsubasa?" Madoka said. She nodded then shook head. "I don't know."

Tsubasa reached her and frowned. "Here, take your hands off of your face and I'll give you a boost back up."

"Okay." Slowly, her hands came down from her face. Her eyes widened and she started at Tsubasa for a few seconds before snorting and covering her mouth with her hands. She had begun to get over the instant shock of falling into what she thought was a vat of blood and started to realize it wasn't blood. But now, she had almost completely forgot about the stuff they were standing in and had to put her all into trying to stop her giggles.

"What's so funny?" Tsubasa asked, thoroughly confused.

Madoka bit her lip and smiled at him. "It's… well, it's your hair!"

"My hair?" a feeling of dread crept into the pit of his stomach and he slowly looked down at one of his bangs. His mouth dropped open. Apparently, the red dye and water mix had turned his hair a light shade of pink.

**MWM**

"This is stupid!" Kyoya shouted.

"You beat him to a pulp." The police officer frowned down at him.

"I didn't beat him _that_ much."Kyoya muttered, crossing his arms.

"You broke his nose, bruised half his body, fractured two of his ribs, and gave him a concussion."

"Okay, fine, but the little brat deserved it!"

"Whether or not he deserved it you're being charged with assault and battery."

"What!? You can't do that!"

"Watch me." He went to grab Kyoya who jumped backwards and kicked him in the stomach.

"No way!"

The police officer scowled at him. "Fine then!" In a swift motion he yanked out a pair of handcuffs and got one of Kyoya's wrists. "You're under arrest for assaulting a police officer!"

"What?!" The police man finished cuffing him and pushed him into the back of his car. Before they drove off Kyoya caught sight of a smirking Damian sitting in the back of an ambulance while they patched up his ribs. How bad the blue haired boy looked only gave him a small bit of pleasure.

Nile sighed and face palmed. How could this have possibly happened?

Ten minutes later Nile's cell phone rang. "Hello?"

"Nile, keep an eye on Damian!"

"Hi Kyoya, how are you liking jail?"

"Shut up! Just keep watching Damian until I get out. Don't lose him."

"And for how long will that be?"

"I have to serve six days." Kyoya grumbled.

Nile snorted. "You really should learn how to control your temper you know."

Kyoya huffed and Nile could practically hear him rolling his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, just do what I said." He hung up.

**WMW**

Gingka gasped when he heard Madoka's scream. "Madoka!"

He started running through the halls, blindly trying to figure out where she was. He hadn't gotten very far when he slammed into something. "Ouch!" He said, sitting on the ground now.

Opposite him, Masamune was in an almost identical position. "Hey watcha do that for!" he jumped up.

"I didn't do anything! You ran into me!" Gingka jumped up as well.

"No you idiot! You ran into me!"

"That's so not true!"

"It so is!"

"Boys boys! Jeez, shut up! Even from here you're giving me a headache!" Diana's voice rang out over the loudspeakers.

"Humpf." Gingka snorted.

"Let's go this way!" Masamune pointed at the only route that the two hadn't come from and Gingka rolled his eyes.

"Where else would we go?" The two started down the path.

**MWM**

'There have been a lot of noises lately' Yu thought, walking down the path carelessly. So far, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. By the sound of it, Madoka wasn't so lucky.

"Argh! Is this stupid maze ever going to end?!" After he said that he heard a growl coming from around the next corner. Proceeding carefully, Yu turned the corner and a shape came flying at him.

**WMW**

Masamune and Gingka walked into a pathway that was much longer than any of the ones they had been in previously.

"Wow this is a long hallway." Masamune said, looking down it.

"Yeah." Gingka said, walking out into it, followed by Masamune. Right after they started walking they heard a whirring sound.

"Hey, what's that?" Gingka stopped, listening to the sound.

"I don't know, it kind of sounds like my microwave when it's trying to break."

Gingka gave him a strange look. "That doesn't sound anything like a microwave! Well, maybe a little."

Masamune smirked, but then the whirring got louder and they turned to see what it was. At the end of the hallway there was a wall with metal spikes on it, and now it was moving in their direction.

"What the-?!"

"She's going to skewer us!" Gingka shouted angrily, and the two boys darted down the hallway, hoping there was a door somewhere.

**MWM**

"You scared me little guy." Yu told the small white cat that had jumped in his direction as he ran his hand down its back. "What are you doing in here anyway?" the cat meowed and began walking down a path.

It walked a little while then stopped and looked back at Yu. "Do you want me to follow you?" Yu asked, walking towards it. As if to answer, the little feline continued walking through the maze. Yu followed, and every time he would stop the cat would turn around and stare at him until he followed again.

**WMW**

"You okay Madoka?" Tsubasa asked, after managing to haul himself back onto the normal floor –with a little help from Madoka.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She resisted giggling at Tsubasa again. Not only was his hair and pants dyed pink, but with the addition of being soaked and dripping he gave the impression of being a drowned rat. A pink rat. "How about you?"

"My pride is a bit wounded, but I am alright."

"Good! You ready to go now?"

He nodded. "But let's go slowly this time."

"Oh wait, Tsubasa, why did you come from over by the wall? I mean, how did you get in there?"

"I came over the wall."

"Oh." They started walking. "Hey! Do you think you could climb back up and see the way out of the maze?"

"Probably."

"Let's do that then! It would be much faster."

"You're right." Tsubasa said, already attempting to climb onto the wall. It was a little trickier this time because he was wet, but after three tries he finally succeeded.

"Can you see the way out?"

"Yeah, we're not too far." Tsubasa said, jumping back down. "We need to go that way." He led her through another door.

**MWM**

"Crap! There's nowhere else to go! Gingka shouted. He and Masamune had ran the entire length of the hallway and there were no doors anywhere. So now, they stood at the end and watched the spiky wall get closer and closer.

"There's no way I can die here!" Masamune shouted at the ceiling. This time Diana didn't say anything.

The wall picked up speed, and Gingka closed his eyes, bracing himself for the worst. Then, the wall hit him and he felt the spikes pierce his flesh and the blood began oozing-'Wait! That doesn't feel like metal!' he thought. He opened his eyes and saw he and Masamune had been pinned to the wall by gray foam spikes. Diana was probably dying of laughter right now.

"Very funny!" he shouted up angrily.

Masamune on the other hand was laughing very hard "You should've seen your face!"

"… Like yours was any different!"

"I did not look half as scared as you did!"

"Oh yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah?"

Suddenly the wall they were pushed up against fell backwards and they found themselves looking up at Yu, holding a little cat. Next to Yu was Tsubasa and Madoka, both drenched and Tsubasa looking a little pink.

Both of them snorted back laughter for a second then let it burst out. "T-Tsubasa, what happened to you?"

"Decided on a new hairstyle did you?" Masamune rolled onto his stomach and shook with laughter.

Tsubasa just frowned and the duo and crossed his arms.

"Oh wow, that was totally worth all the work it took to build it!" The laughter was cut short as Diana walked out of an elevator that had just arrived. "Bravo to you all. Sadly Yu didn't fall into any of my traps though… Oh well, I guess I'll just make up for that when his day comes."

"What's wrong with you?! Why would you find pleasure in scaring us like that?" Madoka yelled, walking towards the blue haired girl. Before she could reach her the latter of the two snapped her fingers and the gray guards seemed to come from out of nowhere and surround them.

"I think the fun for today is over with." A glare had worked its way onto her face. "Take them back to their rooms, and don't give them too much food either." She snorted turning on her heel and stomping back into the elevator where her boyfriend awaited her.

Jake smirked at them as the elevator doors began to close. "I hope you all get a good night's sleep!"

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><p><strong>Sorry this one isn't very long and for the weird stopping place, but it was a good place to stop it, so I did. This chapter, if you couldn't tell, was more to portray Diana's insanity than anything else. Oh and I don't know if the police assault and assault and battery rules exist in Japan, but I couldn't resist using them. And the least you'll get for assault on an officer is a day or two in jail, depending on your intent and on the damage done.<strong>

**I appreciate any feedback you guys will give me, and I'm sorry for taking so long to update. I had another small family emergency come up in the last week and I couldn't write during Christmas, and after Christmas and before New Years (27-30) my family went to Disney World. Sadly the last day in DW we were supposed to go to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, both of which I was really looking forward to because I wanted to go on Expedition Everest, Rockin' Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror. However shortly after arriving at Animal Kingdom I began throwing up, so I spent the rest of the day in the hotel, doing the same there. But anyway a word of advice: if you go to Disney World DO NOT go between Christmas and New Year. That is THE most popular time of year to go so you will be waiting in line for everything. And I mean, EVERYTHING. And not short lines either. Lines can go from an hour to four hours. Anyway enough of my ranting. I hope you liked it!**

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><p><strong>Comment replies<strong>

**Starlit Skyline: I'm still not entirely sure myself how I'm going to do that yet but I have a pretty good idea. You're just going to have to wait and see I guess! :D And don't worry, nothing you say about that man will ever offend me.**

**Dazardz: Thank you, and sorry I was so slow. ^^;**

**Well, my family is as okay as we're going to be for a while, but overall I guess we're doing good. My cat is okay besides being obese, asthmatic, and most likely diabetic. But those are easy to deal with really.**

**I know right? I was wondering why it didn't end. Or maybe it did end and this is all a dream.**

**Anne: Sorry. That's all I can say. I don't blame you for being upset though.**


	14. Attempted Escape

Tsubasa sat gingerly on the edge of the small platform withing his cell that was likely intended to be a bed. His chest was killing him. It was likely he had overdone it. He hadn't really felt the pain until just a few minutes after they had thrown them all back into their cells, which he was glad for. He decided it was probably because the adrenaline was wearing off. Maybe climbing walls hadn't been such a brilliant idea. Well, whether it was smart or not, it was done and there was nothing he could do about it except cope with the pain it caused.

He slid backwards until his back was against the wall and leaned against it, sighing. It was good that he wasn't too tired anymore, but it wasn't hard to see that it would take a much longer time for him to recover from the gunshot wound than it did exhaustion. Not that that was really surprising, just inconvenient.

After a moment he noticed that he was breathing oddly and grunting a little every time he took a breath. He began to focus on taking deep slow breaths and not grunting. It was a difficult task and he did it gently, trying to put as little strain on his tender chest as possible.

MWM

Gingka paced around his little cell a little anxiously. What was she planning to do with them? Why? It didn't make any sense. And why had she bothered with that strange maze thing earlier? Did she just want to scare them? Again, why? Did she get some sort of sadistic pleasure out of watching them get scared for nothing? Possibly, but that maze had to be expensive to build. Who would spend that much on something just to scare them? But then again, not many people had the money to have more than one house in more than one country or helicopters, especially not many teenagers.

"Argh!" he yelled, throwing his hands up. Why did everything have to be so confusing? It made his head feel like exploding.

The door opened and a nervous looking guard that couldn't have been much older than him, walked in and sat down a tray of food. The young man's eyes lingered on Gingka a minute before he turned quickly and practically ran out.

'That was odd.' Gingka thought, staring at the door.

WMW

Nile sighed, irritated. He had been watching Damian for almost three days now. So far he hadn't done anything. Literally. He rarely even left the hotel room he was staying in. This was totally a dead end. If Damian was behind Gan Gan Galaxy's disappearance, then why was he here, and why weren't they?

MWM

Masamune sighed and trembled slightly, trying to move as little as possible. His "turn" as Diana had called it, had happened that day. It had hurt. Like crap it hurt. He'd managed not to yell too much, but that's kind of hard to do when a thick piece of leather is digging into your back time after time after time.

The door zipped open suddenly, and Masamune was faced with a very excited Gingka.

"Gingka?! How did you get out?" Masamune asked. His voice was excited and the expression on his face, but his posture remained very stiff.

"The last guard guy who brought my food didn't lock my door back! Come on, let's go get the others!" Gingka practically jumped up and down in the doorway.

Masamune groaned and hauled himself to his feet, wincing with every little movement. It took him way too long to stumble his way over to the door. Every time he moved it was like sharp little needles pierced him all over, and his whip wounds stung deeply.

"Hey are you okay?"

"No," Masamune grunted angrily, gritting his teeth. Gingka grabbed his arm, receiving a sharp yelp from Masamune, and pulled him down the hallway. Masamune continued to move his feet in a way that resembled walking, but Gingka was going too fast. Although it was really just ordinary walking speed.

Gingka dropped Masamune in the main room where Masamune grabbed a wall and held still again. "Jeez Gingka, can't you be a little more, I dunno, gentle or something!?"

"Stay here, and if anybody comes, warn me okay? I'm getting the others out now!" Gingka ran down the next hall. There were only a few doors so he ran to the first. There was a tiny window on it and he looked in. Madoka was sitting on the "bed" examining her bruised legs. They seemed to be beginning to heal now. Although that didn't stop them from being painful.

"Madoka!"

"Huh? Gingka? How did you-?" Madoka looked through the little window at Gingka confusedly. She stood up and ran over to the door.

"No time, come on!" Gingka yelled and yanked on the door. Which didn't budge. Surprise.

"Keys Gingka?" Madoka sighed.

"Oh. Heheh, right," he said sheepishly, and ran back to the hallway entrance where a set of keys hung nicely on a hook.

Gingka slid the keys in, beginning to feel nervous about how long it was taking, and opened the door. Madoka quickly walked out, glanced around, and then looked back at Gingka. "Where are the others?"

"I think they're down there," Gingka said, looking farther down the hallway. "Come on!" he grabbed her arm and pulled her quickly down the hallway.

The next door they reached seemed to be Yu's. Yu was, unfortunately, in worse condition than Madoka. At least someone seemed to take care of his worse injuries. He was laying across the floor, his arms and one of his legs wrapped in red-stained bandages, and tears running down his face. As much as Yu tried to act tough, he was still just a little boy.

"Yu! Come on, we're getting out of here!" Gingka yelled as he threw the door open.

"Gingka!" Yu yelled, sitting up quickly and trying to wipe his eyes off. Madoka gingerly pulled him to his feet as Gingka rushed back into the hall towards Tsubasa's cell. Yu winced and limped out the door behind Madoka, being uncharacteristically quiet.

WMW

"Hey Kyoya, how are you doing? Sick of jail yet?" Nile couldn't resist teasing his leader a bit.

"Shut up," Kyoya growled. "You better not have called me just for that."

"I didn't," Nile assured him, "In fact, I called to tell you that I'm on a plane heading to America."

"What?"

"Yeah, Damian decided to move I guess. So, I'm sticking to his tail." Nile's eyes landed on Damian's back. The blue-haired boy sat a few rows ahead of him, and, luckily, hadn't seemed to notice his presence yet.

The other end of the phone line remained silent for a few moments, as if Kyoya was contemplating something. "Good work," Kyoya said into the phone, smirking on his side. "Don't let him get away."

MWM

Masamune leaned against the wall, breathing heavily and grumbling quietly. He didn't deal with pain too well. He wasn't used to being in it, and was probably one of the worst at handling it.

His murmured complaining ceased when he heard a slight sound. It seemed to be coming from the opposite end of the room. So, he shoved himself off the wall and crossed to the other door, which was a depressingly slow and painful process. Once there, he pressed his head against the door and tried to listen. For a moment he didn't hear anything. And then he clearly heard the sound of an elevator. Crap.

"Gingka! We gotta go! Now!" Masamune stumbled back across the room, much quicker (albeit much more painfully too) than before, still yelling at Gingka.

Gingka shot out of the hallway, dragging Madoka along and being followed by Tsubasa who had picked Yu up in an effort to speed up their escape. It all seemed pointless however, as the door at the end of the hall opened.

Diana stepped into the room, followed by a few guards and her boyfriend, and stopped, gaping at the escapees. Her stunned face slowly melted into an angry one. "Get them!" she snapped angrily.

It was only a few seconds before Masamune had both arms seized behind him and was being dragged to the middle of the room. Madoka was equally easy to catch and quickly joined him. Gingka darted for a hall, but unfortunately chose the one with a closed door, effectively slowing himself down long enough to get caught. Tsubasa ran down the other hall, still carrying Yu, and actually made decent progress. Yu's added weight, as little as it was, was enough to slow Tsubasa's progress to a point where it only took a few minutes of running before the guards caught up. When the first guard reached them, Tsubasa dropped Yu and turned, landing a nice, strong punch square in the man's jaw, sending him a good few steps back into the last guard. Even though he did this, Tsubasa knew it was pointless. They'd caught them. There was no way he could grab Yu and outrun them now. In fact, chances were pretty good he wouldn't be able to outrun them even without holding Yu anymore. They joined the rest of their companions in the main room, Yu once more complaining loudly as he was carted unceremoniously and painfully under a guard's arm.

"How dare you!" Diana yelled angrily, stomping as she paced in front of them. "How dare you!" it kept seeming like she was trying to come up with something else to say, but constantly found herself coming back to that. Finally she stopped her angry pacing and rubbed her forehead tiredly. "How did you get out?" she finally asked, looking very irritated.

"I let them out!" Gingka yelled, glaring at her. "I won't let you hurt my friends anymore!"

Diana looked at him long and hard, the silence stretching out before them. Finally, it broke with a loud snack as her palm hit his face. She then stuck her finger in his face, her own face a mask of rage. She was so angry her entire body shook.

"You should watch what you say to me," her voice was low, and trembled slightly.

"You shouldn't hurt my friends!" Gingka yelled back at her.

"You'll regret this tomorrow!" Diana yelled, and began stalking back towards the door.

Madoka, who had finally managed to work her courage up enough to do this, called out, "Is it really worth this just for revenge?"

Diana froze mid-step and turned towards Madoka. The anger had seemed to instantly disappear and was replaced with surprise. "How did you know I'm doing this for revenge?" All of Gan Gan Galaxy looked surprised as well.

"I-in your other place, the one Yu and I were in first, I saw a picture of your family," Madoka managed to stutter.

"A picture…" Diana murmured, glancing up thoughtfully.

"But I don't understand why you're getting revenge for him. He didn't die, or even really get hurt as far as I know," now Madoka had the full attention of all her friends, and her enemies too.

Diana snorted. "Revenge for him? Why in the world would I want that? I hate Damian more than any of you ever could!" There was a surprised gasp or two from the captives. "That's right," Diana growled, turning towards the rest of the team. "Damian Hart is my little brother, and I hate him down to his very core."

"Then why are you-" Tsubasa started, but was cut off.

"Because I was all ready to take my revenge out on him when you all butted in! Thanks to you, my _brother _disappeared without a trace. Not even I could manage to track him down! I waited a year, but I can't wait any longer! Since it's your fault I can't get my revenge on that little brat, I'll just have to take my revenge out on you!"

A/N Wow, I'm so terribly sorry I didn't update for so long! To be honest, I never had a huge love for Beyblade, so as I got more into other stuff this story kind of got pushed aside. But, luckily for you, I've been feeling more like working on this story for the past week, so it's back in business! I don't intend to stop like I did this time again, so no worries about that. I do have a whole list of excuses I could give you, but I don't think I'll bother you with that. The real issue is that I have been utterly obsessed with Hetalia and Magi, the Labyrinth of Magic for a while now. I've written a JapanxReader, and am working on a GreecexReader, FrancexReader, and AmericaxReader, not to mention all the different stories I'm getting ideas for. The thing about Hetalia is that it has a humongous fan-base and CountryxReaders are very popular and pretty easy to write so I get a lot of attention with those. But, thanks to a few kind-hearted readers who reviewed this story about a month or so ago, I got the bug to come back and finish it. So, if you want me to update faster, more of you need to review. Really. It isn't hard. Just click on that little button that says review and type a few words. It doesn't have to be a ton, but I just don't really feel like writing when I don't actually know whether people are reading/enjoying it or not.


	15. Don't get excited

This is just an Author's note sorry. :( But don't be alarmed, I just wanted to say don't give up hope because as soon as I put this one shot of mine up on Deviantart I'm going to get to work on the next chapter. That's all I wanted to say! And thank you to guests. You guys inspired me to keep going sooner! :D


	16. Hidden Past and Hope for the Future

Diana sat in her bed, her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. The hallway that sat in front of her bed looked much like a wide, gaping mouth waiting to swallow her up. She wondered what ever possessed her to choose this room for her bedroom-the one room with a hallway inside it. The hallway led to her bathroom and ended in the door to the rest of the house. Her room was really like a closed off little house of its own. It even had bolts on the door.

The room itself was impersonal, like a hotel room. She kept nothing in there to remind her of her past. She didn't want to remember. No family pictures. No trinkets or souvenirs, not that she had any of those anyway. The only thing she kept in there that in any way resembled her or her past was her clothes. There was a mirror on the wall, a bed in the center of the room with a nightstand next to it, and a chair with a lamp in the corner. There were no windows. It was very dark. The girl shivered at the thoughts she had about what could live in the dark. Sometimes she would hear voices, and once she even saw a large, shadowy creature with glowing eyes sitting in the chair and staring at her. She had gotten up calmly and walked down to the library, where, calling up old memories of her mother's mother, she had placed a bible on the table next to her and dissolved into tears.

There was no kidding herself. Diana knew she was insane. Sane people didn't see the demons lurking about her. Sane people didn't spend thousands of dollars on devices to torture people they didn't even know. Sane people didn't kill their family.

Diana turned and looked in the mirror, half expecting to see the dark shadow in the chair again. She had seen it many times, and though the fear never went away, she had gotten used to it. It wasn't there. All she saw was herself. Her nightgown was white, but she was anything but pure. She hadn't even bothered to wash the blood off her hands. She didn't mind it. It was dried to her skin and the red stain felt right. It was a reminder of the blood literally on her hands.

Since the time she was very small, Diana had begun to see the world differently. She saw no beauty in anything. Not the sunset that turned the sky red, not the leaves stirred up by the wind in the trees, not the kittens on TV. Everything she saw was painted by hate and anger. Nothing could look nice like that. That was why she was doing this. She was taking her revenge so the hate would go away. Once she was done with this, once her revenge was complete, she could be happy for the first time in her life.

**-Flashback-**

Diana sat cross-legged on the floor, staring out at the city. The Hart family was currently staying in their penthouse in New York, but Diana was not allowed to go sightseeing. In fact, she was never allowed to do anything at all except study. Study math, study science, study art and music, study literature, study English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, and Chinese, study government and economics, and study a subject that was probably something all politicians took no matter what they may have called it: the art of manipulation. She hated most of them, but the one she hated the most was beyblade. She had to be good at it. It was the most played game in the world. She had to be the best. It was her job to maintain the family reputation after all.

She wouldn't have minded so much if she had any sort of ability. But she didn't. She could barely do any more than launch the bey. It was horrible. Every day her parents looked at her with the same face. She was a failure and she knew it. If only she could get it right. If only she could improve enough to beat the teacher maybe her parents would love her.

The door opened silently and she stared at the ground. Her parents had been having a discussion on what to do with her. This was the defining moment of her life, she knew. Whatever her parents had decided was going to change her-and her life-forever.

Her father, his stern face set like stone, announced that she was to be sent off with a new tutor who would mold her into the person she was supposed to become. Someone who wouldn't be a complete shame to the family.

That same day, she was introduced to the man that would be known to her only as 'Tutor' for the entirety of their relationship. He had stringy blond hair and glasses that reflected the light and hid his eyes. He had on a very nice suit and tie with shiny shoes. His teeth were also very straight and very white. In many circles he could be considered very handsome in an abstract sort of way.

The first thing he did upon meeting his future student was extend his hand and smile a genuine looking smile. Diana smiled back and took the hand. Maybe her new life wasn't going to be so bleak after all.

After the first week of her training she realized she was naïve to think this life could be better than her old one. She'd spent the entire time locked in a small, dark room. One day every week Tutor let her out and trained her in beyblade. If she didn't do well enough to please him, he beat her, but not terribly bad, just enough to really make her feel it. And yet, Diana still respected him. She didn't even fear him. In fact, she thought her relationship with him was the closest she had come to love in her life.

He was strict and harsh while he was teaching, but if she did a good job he would always smile at her and sometimes he would even reward her with a trip into the nearby town. He would take her to a park or a grocery store or some other somewhat populated place and tell her "You see these people? They are the masses. Unintelligent, and unimportant. Their only true value for us is as tools. Manipulation is key. All these you see are under you. You are much better than all of them."

Diana didn't know when she started actually believing that, but as she grew older she began to see the world differently. There were few that she could consider her actual equal she realized. She did not mind. It wasn't until she went home for the summer when she was fifteen did she realize that her parents considered her one of the people that were far below them. Her little brother showed his growing skill as a blader and bragged about getting sent to a special school where he would get "treatments" to make him stronger. He then informed her that she would not be inheriting the power their parents had. She was glad to leave with her Tutor at the end of that summer. Her dark little room was much more inviting than that place. At least she had the strange stories she filled her mind with there.

The next time she went back to the place her family lived, Damian taunted her again. He had dug up the diary she had kept before she went to live with Tutor. Now he waved it in her face and teased her as cruelly as he could. He laughed and taunted and told her that no one would ever love her, that their parents loved him and not her, and the love that she used to want so dearly would never be given to her by anyone. She held her hands tightly over her ears and screamed at him, but he just laughed louder and taunted her more cruelly. That is, until their father came in. Then he started crying. That second was when she truly began hating Damian. She hated him with a passion so strong she could barely think straight.

Diana tried to defend herself, but her father wouldn't listen. He beat her thoroughly and threw her out, telling her never to come back again. That's when she realized how much she hated her "family" now. They were wrong. She was not one of the many below them, but they, in fact, were the ones below her.

Pouring all her hatred and rage into her blading, she found that her launch was very impressive. Her battling never improved no matter how much training she did, but her launch was enough to strike down any bay-if she could hit it when she launched. In fact, she found (quite accidentally) as she practiced one day, that her launch was not only powerful, but also deadly if aimed at a human.

When she looked back at this time in her life in the future she would be glad for it. Living on the street hardened her. She took whatever she wanted from whomever she wanted. There was no such thing as remorse. She was above that. Laws? Those were for the masses.

The year of the worldwide Beyblade battle she decided she would make her move, starting with her parents. Damian was battling in front of the world so it wasn't exactly an opportune time to kill him. But, if her parents were to die while he was away there would be no one to challenge her claim as heir.

It was dark when she stepped, unchallenged, into her parent's office. None of the guards would dare challenge a Hart. The two aging adults stared at her for a few minutes, not really recognizing who she was. She thought this was pathetic. They couldn't recognize their own daughter. This proved that they were not even her equal. They were not worth sparing. But once she lifted her bey and told them how much she hated them they recognized the fire in her eyes. They stared in horror, not able to move, only her mother managed to whisper her name before she launched her bey and it shot through her father, killing him instantly. She smiled, picked up her bloody bey, and killed her mother before the woman could run out the door. The first stage of her revenge was complete.

The building they had been inside went up in flames, destroying the evidence of her parent's deaths, and she left, followed by all the members of the secret society that had been inside it. She had proven herself the stronger Hart. She was in control now. Everything she had never had she had gained in her parent's demise. There was no such thing as love. It was merely an illusion for the weak. She did not need it.

But she found after a while that she was feeling lonely. Why she of all people was lonely was beyond her. She finally chalked it up to the human need for companionship and went looking for someone. There were no particular requirements, besides a lack of morals-which she imagined would be easy enough to find, and it needed to be someone she wouldn't get terribly annoyed at. She finally found a boy two years older than her on one of her many clubbing trips. His name was Jake and he hit on her first. After answering a slew of questions, Diana decided she could grow to like this sleeze-ball. Immediately she gave him the run-down. She was rich. She was a little lonely. He could hang around and, to a point, enjoy her riches. If he overstepped his bounds she would kill him. Being the unscrupulous guy he was, Jake agreed immediately.

Now Diana descended into her final stage of misery: she would destroy her brother, if it was the last thing she did.

**MWM**

"But you have to do something!" Kenta shouted angrily at the Police chief.

Hiroshi sighed, looking at each of the young bladers in turn. "I would like to help you but I simply can't."

"But why would Damian be here in Japan if it didn't have anything to do with team Gan Gan Galaxy's disappearance?" Mei-Mei asked, glancing at Dashan as if looking to see if he minded her comment.

"I agree that it is suspicious, but as far as we know Damian was just here in Japan to see the sights as an American tourist. There isn't anything I can do until I know more. Unless you can prove that there is any definite connection between their disappearance and his presence here. Get me that and I will do what I can. Otherwise, I'm sorry, but I just can't help you."

"But-" Lera started, but Aleksei stopped her.

"He's right. We can't expect him to do anything more." He turned to Chief Hiroshi. "Thank you for your time sir, if we find anything more we will inform you immediately." Since Kyoya's imprisonment and Nile's trip across the sea Aleksei had somehow slid into the position of temporary leader, though he seemed to be sharing it with Dashan.

"But Aleksei," Benkei yelled, following the others out of the room. "You haven't even asked him to take Kyoya out of jail!"

"Kyoya committed a crime and for that he must pay. Besides, it would be pointless now since he only has two days left." Dashan told Benkei, giving him a very final look.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Chi-yun asked once they were on the elevator. "Kyoya is in jail, Nile is in America watching Damian, and all of us are here, doing nothing."

"It is pretty frustrating," Chao muttered, pushing off the wall as the elevator dinged and came to a stop. It was a good thing the elevator was so big, otherwise everyone wouldn't have fit on it-especially not Nowaguma.

"Are you all here about team Gan Gan Galaxy?" a woman asked, stepping in front of them.

"Yes," Dashan said, crossing his arms. "How did you know?"

"Allow me to introduce myself," she said calmly, ignoring Dashan's question. "My name is Saiyo, and I think I can help you."

**A/N Sorry guys, once again it took me forever. And once again, thank you guys so much for reviewing! You have no idea what it means to me when you guys review like that. I mean really. It's amazing to me to know that some of you guys actually like my story enough to hang on to it even after I ignored the poor thing for so long! :( But, in my defense, my mother grounded me from all of my electronic devices for two months so I couldn't write anyway. :P So anyway, please, please review!**

**PS I made myself an updating schedule so it shouldn't be so long before I update again! :D**


	17. Planning and a Mountain

Damian, irritated, crossed his arms and glared at the cab driver. "What do you mean you won't go any further?"

The taxi driver, feeling anxious, didn't even look at Damian's murderous glare, instead scanning the sky like he expected a bomber plane to swoop down and decimate the little yellow car with him inside. "I won't go no further," he said bluntly. "I ain't no fool, and I've heard 'nough about this place to make my skin crawl."

Damian sighed angrily and stepped out of the cab. It seemed there was no point in trying to get this guy to go farther. He stopped at the window and tossed him a few bucks.

"This isn't enough!" the driver cried in indignation.

"Would you like to disappear like the other people who've trespassed here?" Damian said almost sweetly, smiling evilly at the driver. A bead of sweat ran down the driver's brown face. He saw something in the kid's eyes that was telling him to take the little bit of cash and run as far away as he could. This little punk was evil. He could see that.

Without a word the driver rolled up his window and did a U-turn on the small road. Damian laughed as the coward drove away, leaving him pretty much stranded.

Damian looked up the mountain and smiled to himself, knowing that up there was a rather expansive house. And in that house was his sister and very possibly Gingka and his friends too. He'd never doubted Diana's insanity, especially after she killed their parents. Not that he actually cared. His parents weren't exactly going to win an award for their efforts in raising their two children. In fact, in Damian's opinion, they should probably be locked up. In truth he did not like them anymore than Diana did. He was glad they were gone. But he hated her too.

He hated his sister for no particular reason. She'd never actually managed to do anything to him. Their parents made sure of that. Or maybe what he felt wasn't hatred, but more of a love to make her miserable. He certainly enjoyed doing that. He always had. That was probably why she hated him. He didn't care though. In fact, he loved it. He absolutely loved how much she hated him. It gave him power over her even without her knowledge. Damian didn't doubt she'd kill Gingka and all his friends if she thought it would get to him in some way. The girl had no more respect for life than he had.

Damian laughed as he walked off the road and onto the thin hiking trail he knew led to the mansion. He figured it was about time for a little family reunion.

**MWM**

Nile sighed, walking slowly down the broken asphalt road. Why in the world had Damian gone to a little nothing town in the middle of Montana? What could he possibly hope to find here? After Damian had gotten off the plane he got a taxi and went straight here. Nile had, of course, followed him, but when they got to the tiny town he let the taxi go back, not realizing that Damian wasn't done with his taxi yet. So, when Damian set off again, Nile followed. On foot. At least it wasn't raining.

Nile stopped walking when he saw the taxi heading his way. He stepped out into the road, blocking the taxi's path. Damian wasn't in the cab anymore.

The taxi screeched to a halt and the irritated driver poked his head out. "What do you want kid?"

"That guy that was in your taxi, where did you drop him off?"

The man motioned back down the road he'd come down. "If you follow this road there's only one destination. It goes up a mountain, but the entire mountain is private property and people who have trespassed there have a tendency to disappear. If I were you I'd hightail it back where you came from 'fore it's too late." He was about to take off again but Nile quickly grabbed the side of the window.

"Can you take me somewhere I can make an international call?" Unfortunately, his cell plan didn't exactly include that.

**MWM**

"How can you help us?" Dashan asked, his body shifting slightly into a more defensive stance.

The woman sighed and rubbed her temples lightly. "I was… It was my job to watch Gingka and Masamune and to keep them safe."

"Great job," Lera snorted, tossing her pink head slightly. Alexsie frowned at her, but said nothing. Lera would always be Lera-and uncouth and rude-no matter what he said. She didn't really mean any harm. At least, he hoped she didn't.

Saiyo glared at Lera but then sighed. "I guess I deserved that much." Sighing, she turned back to Dashan and Alexsie. "I'm off the case and not supposed to get involved, but I have some friends that might be willing to lend a hand."

"So you are saying you will defy direct orders from the government just to help us?" Dashan asked skeptically.

Saiyo smiled almost mischievously, crossing her arms. "The government can't always involve itself in situations. It's too dangerous. Foreign policy and all that. On the other hand, a renegade agent can't be a reflection on the entire government or used as a representative of the policy. I do have approval from my higher-ups, it just isn't official. They'll go easy on me in the end."

"Back to the original question then. How can you help us?"

Saiyo's smile widened measurably. She turned abruptly on the marble floors and walked towards the door, heels clacking loudly as she went. Pausing, she turned to look at the unmoving group behind her. "Are you coming, or are you just going to stand there looking dumb and doing nothing all day?"

Dashan looked to Alexsie, who shrugged slightly, then to the rest of the group who seemed either eager to follow or as uncertain about the woman as the rest. Saiyo's impatient foot tapping finally spurred the group into movement.

**MWM**

Tsubasa paced restlessly around his small room. He knew Diana hadn't yet finished with Gingka, and it had been hours. He'd heard her remove him from his cell, and had been listening closely for their return.

Since their attempted escape the group had been moved. Their cells were much smaller than before and they weren't given as much food. Or at least that was the case for Tsubasa. He couldn't speak for the rest.

Based on how angry Diana had been yesterday, she was really letting Gingka have it now. Tsubasa didn't think she'd kill him, but he wasn't certain. The girl was obviously insane, so there was no way to really know what she would do. He'd had enough run-ins with insane people that he knew how extremely unpredictable they usually were.

He nearly jumped when he heard a door slam. It sounded like Gingka was back. The fact that he hadn't heard him before the door was shut was bad though. That meant no one was saying anything, and since it was Gingka, that was an absolutely terrible sign.

It suddenly occurred to Tsubasa that he should begin worrying for himself. Diana seemed more the type to let her anger fester and grow stronger, not fizzle out over time. If that was the case, that meant his beating could easily end up being worse than Gingka's, and if Gingka's was so bad that he wasn't even yelling or complaining or fighting in some way… Tsubasa didn't like to think about it.

He was beginning to feel a terrible tingling up his spine. A premonition maybe. Something horrible was going to happen tomorrow. He didn't know what -though at the time he assumed it was the upcoming beating- but he knew, he absolutely knew without a doubt, that tomorrow was going to be a terrible day.

**WMW**

"Thank you very much," Saiyo said calmly to the waiter as she received her drink.

Dashan tapped lightly and quickly on the table, his patience running out. Saiyo had taken him and Alexsie to a restaurant, leaving the rest of the gang at the hotel. The idea was that she would explain to the two boys and they could, at least try, to explain it to the rest. But so far all Saiyo had done was drink soda and munch on an appetizer.

Alexsie didn't seem to mind too much. He was watching Saiyo and keeping an eye on their surroundings, pushing up his glasses every few minutes.

Dashan stopped tapping.

"Is something wrong?" Saiyo asked innocently.

"No," Dashan said, "I just thought that we were here to discuss what you can do to help us get Gingka and the others back."

Saiyo smiled and leaned forward, sliding her drink to the side. "Finally. I thought you would never say anything."

"What?"

"I've been waiting for you to speak up."

"What? Why didn't you just tell us the plans at the start? Why did you wait for us to bring it up?

"I have my reasons," she said simply. Dashan-maturely-resisted the temptation to roll his eyes.

"Tomorrow, after Kyoya is released, is when we will head to America." Saiyo turned and dug into her purse, pulling out her smart phone. "I'll pick all of you up as soon as he is out of prison and take you to the airport. There we will meet two friends of mine that will fly us in their helicopters to America." She paused and placed her phone on the table where Dashan and Alexsie could see it. There was a map on it. "We will stop here," –she pointed to a spot on the map- "Here, here, and here on our way to meet your friend currently in America. We should be there a little past dark tomorrow."

"But what about customs? Won't it take a long time to get through them?" Alexsie pointed out.

"Usually yes, but I have a friend that has given me a pass so that we won't have to bother with customs. It's for when we're on urgent government business, so the customs officers won't dare detain us more than ten or so minutes."

"And after we reach Nile?"

"From there we can only take one helicopter, so on the way to America we will have to decide who will go. Then we will scope out the mountain Nile claims Damian went to."

"What will we do when we get to wherever they are holding team Gan Gan Galaxy? What is our plan, how will we get them out?" Dashan asked.

Saiyo frowned and put her phone back inside her purse. "I don't know yet. I will have to assess the situation before I can create a plan."

Dashan and Alexsie both frowned doubtfully.

"Don't worry," Saiyo said reassuringly, waving over the waiter. "I'm an agent. I'm adept at creating plans on the spot."

The two boys looked at each other. "That's not really what we're worried about."

Saiyo shrugged as she accepted the bill. "Don't worry, I'll make sure we get them back with as few problems as possible."

_**A/N Sorry for the long wait and crappy chapter! If it helps any, I have been extremely busy with Christmas stuff, then I got sick and then my cat got sick and family is coming over and I've had to make Christmas gifts and cook Christmas desserts (yum!) and buy Christmas gifts and etc. etc. etc. If it's any consolation, I do intend to update sooner next time. And since I have my update schedule I will update somewhat regularly.**_

_**Merry Christmas! :D**_


	18. Sneaking in

Damian crossed his arms and stared up at the electric fence going all the way around the property. It appeared his rat of a sister decided to take extra security precautions at some point in the last year. This did two things for him. 1, it made him more confident that she was actually here, in this building on this property, and 2, it made it way more difficult to get in than it would have been before. Why did his sister have to be such a security freak? What, did she think someone was going to try to break in and kill her or something? It's not like she cared about money, so that could be the only explanation. Although she had pretty good reason to be afraid, since that was exactly was Damian was there to do.

He laughed out loud and climbed up onto a rock near the fence. If she thought something so trivial was going to stop him she had another thing coming. It was just a stupid little bit of electricity. Only a coward would give up for something so trivial. He would have to be careful not to touch it though.

He'd noticed that his sister was definitely more paranoid than his parents, that was for sure. From the time he'd stepped onto the mountain he'd been seeing cameras and traps, all rigged to catch and probably even kill intruders. He wasn't stupid enough to fall for any of them though, and he didn't bother trying to stay out of sight of the security cameras.

That was one advantage he did have. The guards wouldn't try to stop him. It'd only been a year since they'd seen him. They wouldn't forget him or his heritage quickly. He was a Hart, a top-dog in this society. That meant that the guards, unless they felt loyal to his sister (which he doubted very much), would stay out of his business. If he beat his sister than he was the strongest and she wasn't a worthy leader. Of course, Damian didn't want the whole dumb society at all, all he wanted was to kill Diana. After he killed her he figured he'd pretty much just disappear again. The society members could decide what to do themselves. He wasn't interested.

But he would get to that when the time came. For the moment, getting inside the electric fence was a more pressing problem.

**MWM**

Diana paced back and forth and wrung her hands. Something was wrong, she could tell when she looked at the guards, but they wouldn't tell her what it was. The impudent little creeps. If they kept not telling her what was going on she would have to do something about them. Teach them who was boss, and why she was boss and not them.

Jake stared at her from his place on the wall, not too thrilled to be awake at 4am. Why did his rich girlfriend have to be so weird?

"Chill babe, nothing is wrong." He flung his hair out of his face and glowered in her direction.

"Something is wrong!" she yelled back, pinning him with a strong glare of her own. "Don't you see it? I can sense it! I'm not as stupid as you think I am!" She paced to the door and paused. She opened it and looked down the hallways. It was silent and dark. She slammed the door as hard as she could, rattling the decorations in the room.

Jake sighed and walked over to her, grabbing her shoulders and beginning to massage them. "There is nothing wrong. Nothing." Sometimes he felt way too much like a babysitter. "Stop being so paranoid."

"I am not paranoid!" she yelled, slapping him away and resuming her pacing. "I have a feeling just like I did the night I killed my parents, but this time I don't know why!" She pinned him with a glare. "There is something wrong." She continued pacing with even more vigor now.

"No," Jake said, matter of factly, "There is nothing wrong. You're just being crazy again."

She stopped moving and glared hard at him. "Do you think you're special? I like you, but not that much. I can find another guy to leach off of me easily, so I suggest you watch what you say. Unless you want to end up like my parents."

Jake swallowed but held his tough look. She would kill him if it suited her. He knew that. In fact, he'd always known that. He was beginning to think getting away from Diana as quickly as possible might be a good idea. He'd traveled to several different places in the world, he'd bought lots of things, he'd had his fun. He could strike out on his own now; get out while the getting was good. But he couldn't let her know he was even thinking about it or she would kill him for sure. He wasn't stupid, so he knew she wouldn't hesitate. She only kept him around anyway because she was lonely. She was right: it would be easy for her to find more (less than honest) people to keep her company. Rich people never had any trouble with that.

"Fine," he snorted. "I just wish you would wait to get these feelings until later in the day."

**WMW**

"Are we almost there yet?" Kenta looked out of the small window of the helicopter. He didn't mean to complain, but being shoved up against Benkei for 9 hours was less than fun.

"Sorry," Saiyo said, turning from her place in the front seat to look back at him, and looking Benkei's hulking form over. "We've got another 3-4 hours before we get there."

"What?!" Lera shouted angrily from Benkei's other side. "You mean I have to deal with this fatty sitting on me for MORE hours?!" Luckily, somewhere during the 9 hour flight, Benkei had fallen asleep and stopped his "Bu-Bu-Bull"-ing. Otherwise, Saiyo or Lera were guaranteed to have attempted to kill him at one time or another.

"If I had known how long this stupid flight was I wouldn't have volunteered to go at all!" Lera said again, crossing her arms indignantly and glaring out the window at the other helicopter. In the end, it had been decided that, out of the group, Kenta and Benkei would go because they cared the most (plus, now that Kyoya was out of jail there was no way he was going anywhere without Benkei), Kyoya, Dashan and Alexsie would go because they were probably the smartest people in the teams, and they had all led the groups at one point or another. After that, Lera and Chao took the last two seats because they volunteered, and won the contest to see who would go. Needless to say, Chi-yun was not very happy about getting left behind, but he lost the deciding game of rock-paper-scissors and didn't whine. Too much anyway.

But when the seating was being decided, everyone suddenly realized that Benkei's size would be a bit of a problem. So it was only logical that they placed the smallest and lightest in the same plane with Benkei. Unfortunately, that also meant they put the loudest people together, and Saiyo was getting a major headache. Being up front in one of the only comfortable seats provided little relief. Lera may have been small and a bit shoved up into the corner because of Benkei, but that by no means prevented her from making a ton of noise. And before Benkei fell asleep, his and Lera's combined loudness was nearly unbearable.

This was a huge contrast to the group of almost completely silent males in the other helicopter. For the most part, Dashan and Chao just stared out their little windows, and Kyoya sat in the front seat and brooded. There was little sound in that helicopter other than Alexsie pecking on the keyboard of his laptop.

**MWM**

Damian sneered at the broken fence behind him. It had taken a little bit, but he'd managed to shut down the electricity on the fence, permanently. Climbing over it after that was fairly easy, minus a small rip in his pants. At least it was over his calf and not… higher up.

It was a fairly long trek from the fence to the house, but it was nothing serious, not for someone like Damian. A well trained, strong, physically fit blader. Climbing over boulders was like a walk in a park to him. There were also no traps inside the fenced area. That made sense since the fence was designed to keep people out.

Of course, there would still be a good deal more security precautions closer to the house, but Damian had crawled all over this property while growing up. He knew it like the backside of his hand, even better than Diana did. He knew all of the short-cuts and hidey-holes this place had to offer, and there were plenty of them. He could worm his way out of any trap she had waiting for him.

He reached the side of the building, the cold concrete looking somewhat intimidating, even to him. No. It wasn't intimidating. There was nothing intimidating about his sister, or the building. Maybe there was to fools like Gingka, but to Damian, the girl and her stronghold were nothing.

After Damian moved a few large rocks, one of the few cracks in the perimeter of the building showed. It was probably the largest, and definitely the one he wanted. It would lead directly to where he wanted to go: the security room.

He dropped easily into the crack and looked around the small dark cavern until he glimpsed a slight reflection of light. Bingo. He crawled his way slowly through the dirt until he reached the ventilator shaft and climbed in. When he was small, he'd always felt that this place was made just for him; a small lucky break that created a place for him to play in. Or more accurately, a tunnel system for him to spy in.

The shaft was tight, even for him, but it was the safest-and likely only-way into the building, and using it he could get pretty much anywhere on the bottom floor. He commando-crawled his way through the dust and cobwebs, trying not to think about the possibility of venomous spiders being in there with him. It was easy enough to ignore all of it anyway, if he just kept thinking about his goal.

After what seemed like way too long of crawling through spider-webs he came to the right vent. It was poorly attached. He stomped on it once, then twice, and listened to the commotion as it clattered to the ground. The room below him was instantly buzzing with activity as the guards swarmed to the area. Damian smiled to himself then dropped down.

They all froze. All twenty or so of the guards instantly stopped moving and stared at him. They all knew who he was. Even if they hadn't all done a massive study of the family, Damian was famous. He almost beat the entire world in beyblade. How could he not be? There was absolutely no way each and every one of them did not know exactly who he was.

Smirking proudly, he strutted past them to the main computer- the one that controlled all of the important security functions of the building- and sat down in the chair, spinning twice for good measure. He pressed the power button and frowned when the screen asked him for a password. There were seven underscores, indicating a seven letter word.

"Hey, what's the password?" Damian asked, spinning around to face the guards. They stared at him silently. "Tell me the stupid password!" he yelled again.

He huffed angrily and spun back around. Stupid neutral policy, with its stupid pros and cons. The guards wouldn't try to stop him, but they certainly wouldn't help him either. He rolled his eyes and stared at the underscores.

He narrowed his eyes as a possibility hit him. Could it really be that simple? Chuckling triumphantly, he typed in the letters: R-E-V-E-N-G-E

The screen glowed blue then changed into a floor-plan of the entire building. It had been remodeled a bit since the last time he had been in the house, but he still knew the basic layout well. And it wouldn't take a genius to figure out where Diana was keeping team Gan Gan Galaxy. In fact, with some help from the labels, he knew exactly where everything was. He laughed crazily to himself.

"Game on, sister."

* * *

><p><em><strong>I'm sorry for the slow update and the crappy chapter. I promise I intended to make this chapter have more in it, but I passed my word quota and this seemed like a good place to stop, so... I did. ^^; Sorry! I hope to do better next time! Please don't hate me!<strong>_


	19. Beginning of a Snowball

Tsubasa sat staring at the door. He wasn't sure what time it was, but he was certain it was somewhere in the early hours of the morning. He'd been staring at the door for some time, worrying about when they were going to come get him. He didn't want to be beat. Not that anyone he knew did. He sighed quietly, laying his head back against the wall behind him. He was to the point that he just wanted them to come get him, to get it over with.

The wall seemed to begin vibrating and there was a sudden quiet squeaky noise, as if gears that didn't turn much had begun moving. Tsubasa stood up quickly, looking around and wondering if they were maybe coming to get him-though he had never heard this particular sound before, even when the doors had been opened. The squeaking got louder and was joined by a sort of cranking sound.

Tsubasa watching in astonishment as the door slowly began moving, and continued to do so until it was completely open. He waited, on edge, listening carefully to every sound, every scuffle, every tap, and all of the silence. But he didn't hear the quick approach of feet, or the yelling of a guard. In fact, there was almost no sound at all.

Moving slowly and carefully, he walked to the door and stuck his head out, looking around. There was nothing; not a single guard was in sight. He stepped out cautiously, wondering if this was some trick. No one came.

Madoka's head suddenly popped out from her cell, and she spotted Tsubasa.

"Tsubasa? What is this?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Tsubasa was silent for a few more seconds before slowly answering. "I don't know."

Yu slowly appeared at his cell door, and walked out slowly and painfully. "What's going on?" he asked, the look on his face somewhere between surprise, irritation, and just plain confusion.

"I'm not sure." Tsubasa looked around quickly, scanning the door at the end of the hall, feeling like any second a guard would bust through.

Masamune slowly limped out into the hall, just seconds before Gingka.

"Why're the doors open?" Masamune said dumbly.

Madoka shrugged at him. "We don't know."

"Wait here, I'll go look." Tsubasa walked towards the door, and he could feel all of their eyes on his back. He was nervous about what would possibly happen when he opened the door, but it was better than standing around wondering what happened.

His palms burst into a clammy sweat as he approached the door. He wiped them on his pants and swallowed, before reaching for the cold, metallic handle. He twisted the knob, took a deep breath, and opened the door. Nothing. Nothing but a small room with an almost entirely cleared desk (there was a computer on it), and an empty chair. No rushing guards. No flashing lights. No wailing sirens. Just silence, a cup of steaming coffee-left sitting next to the computer on the desk, and the ticking of a small clock on the wall.

He blinked at the small room, wondering where the person that had occupied that chair was. The coffee was hot, so he (or she) couldn't have been gone very long. Was there something happening outside that he didn't know about? Something that required the use of the guards? And what had caused the doors to open?

All of the unanswered questions were nagging at Tsubasa, but the most important thing pushed all of the questioning thoughts away: this was their chance to escape. He turned quickly and ran back to the others, hoping his apprehension hadn't made him go so slow that the chance had passed them by.

"What's going on?" Madoka asked, her arm now around Gingka's shoulders, one of his arms over her neck so that she was supporting most of his weight. Her legs were still damaged, but she was in much better shape than Gingka.

"The guards are gone!" Tsubasa said quickly, grabbing Masamune's arm and practically throwing it over his neck, already starting towards the door again and ignoring Masaumune's gasp and surprised yelling. "We need to leave while we have the chance!"

"R-Right," Madoka said, quickly dragging Gingka with her.

"The guards are gone? Why? Did they need to go to the bathroom or something?" Gingka asked.

"No dumb-dumb, there's gotta be something going on!" Yu yelled as he limped along beside them, his voice sounding strained. He was having a hard time walking, and an even harder time keeping up, but he understood the urgency of the situation and was forcing himself to move fairly quickly.

"Like what?" Masaume asked, looking over his shoulder, apparently perfectly content with being helped by Tsubasa.

"I dunno! What are you asking me for?"

"You act like you know everything, so why wouldn't I ask you?!"

"Hey! Was that an insult?!" Yu yelled. Tsubasa sighed as he opened the door again. Couldn't they be quiet at least long enough to try to escape?

**MWM**

Zeo sat silently in the back of the car, watching the trees fly past. The driver was flying around the curves, but he barely noticed. He was worried about Masamune. As soon as Toby had gotten the phone call from Nile they hopped on the first possible flight. Nile was bracing himself in the front seat, his knuckles turning white, while Toby and Zeo sat in the back.

"He's going to be okay, you know," Toby said reassuringly, not looking away from the window.

"Yeah, I know. It is Masamune we're talking about after all."

Toby chuckled quietly at that. The truth was, with as little as they knew about their friend's abductor, they didn't know if he was okay or not. And there wasn't only Masamune to worry about. There were also Gingka, and the girl mechanic, and the little boy Yu, and Tsubasa. They knew that Masamune would most likely be okay, at least they hoped so, and probably Gingka and Tsubasa as well, but what about Madoka and Yu? Could they survive? Of course, they didn't know how their friends were being treated either, so they didn't really know what to expect. But, what they did know was that one girl had already been killed during the process of just kidnapping the beyblading team, and others had been injured.

Toby sighed quietly, closing his eyes and attempting to rid himself of the dark thoughts that were beginning to cloud his mind. They didn't know anything, not really. The big question was why had they been kidnapped in the first place? Toby opened his eyes. He really should follow his own advice.

**WMW**

"What is this?!" Diana screamed, slamming the door to her room open. Jake followed her out, glancing around nervously.

"What's what? I'm not sure what's wrong this time."

"Idiot!" she yelled, grabbing his shirt and yanking his face down closer to hers. "The security went off!"

Jake pursed his lips angrily. "How was I supposed to know that?!"

"The light! It's gone!"

"What light?" Jake gave her a look that clearly said "you are crazy."

"Are you that stupid?! Do you really not know?! You are such a pathetic idiot!"

Jake shook her off and took a step back. "You know what? I'm leaving. I don't need this grief! I can find a rich babe anywhere, and you are not worth all this freaking work!" he turned on his heel, striding angrily towards the main staircase. Diana watched him with a mixture of satisfaction and regret. Her relationship with him, as artificial as it had been, was the only relationship she had with anyone that was not negative. He was a leech, she knew it, but he was a loyal leech, and she hadn't minded his company. He was leaving though, and there was nothing she could do about it. She wasn't about to lower herself to ask him to come back.

A few minutes later, standing at the top of the grand entry staircase, she watched him slink down the stairs carrying a large suitcase. At the door he paused and looked back up at her. His look was goodbye. She sighed as the door opened and he disappeared into the early morning darkness. It might as well have been midnight, inside of her as well as outside.

**MWM**

"Are we almost there yet?" Masamune gasped, trying to keep from standing on his own feet too much. Tsubasa grunted and attempted to shift to accommodate both his and Masamune's weight. He was trying to keep up his speed, but it wasn't working very well since every time he sped up Masamune started grunting and groaning like a dying animal and complaining. Gingka had been surprisingly quiet since they had left the room outside of the hall. Maybe he realized the gravity of their situation.

"I don't know," Tsubasa said, stopping and staring at the corridor in front of him, and the multiple doors on it.

"Why not?"

"I don't know anything about this place, including the layout and size."

"So? You're mister smarty-pants aren't you? You can figure it out."

Yu snorted back a laugh.

Tsubasa sighed and looked at the doors again, finally choosing to go into the last one. It seemed to be some sort of gaming room. Because, of course, there wouldn't be stairs or an elevator in a place that actually made sense. At least there weren't any guards about, although that honestly made him nervous as well as relieved. It didn't make any sense. Where had the guards gone?

"Come on Masamune, it isn't Tsubasa's fault that this place is really weird." Madoka at least was being cooperative, and even Yu was being surprisingly docile.

He shut the door back and sighed again, wondering if Madoka would mind trading for the currently-quiet-usually-obnoxious person.

**WMW**

Toby and Zeo almost flew out of their seats when the reckless driver screeched to a halt on a twisty road that lead to a rather large mansion. Nile, who was glad that he had been braced firmly, looked around. There were trees still. The mansion was still a decent ways away from their current position, and he was about to open his mouth to ask the driver why they had stopped when he saw the sleek black car in front of them. They only saw the car because the headlights of their own car were shining off of the black car's hood.

Nile rolled his window down angrily and poked his head out. "What are you doing?"

A head with dark hair came out of the other window, and the guy it belonged to squinted at the headlights. "I'm leaving, what does it look like?"

Nile looked past him at the mansion then looked at him again. "You came from that mansion?"

"Uh… yeah," the guy said, starting to look uneasy for some reason.

"Why were your headlights off?" Nile opened the door and got out of the car, walking towards the guy quickly.

"Er…"

Nile stopped beside the window and leaned down so his face was level with the teen's. "I think you didn't want anyone to see you."

"That's dumb," he shot back. "Who would I not want to see me way up here? 'Sides, I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Then why were you driving down a treacherous mountain road with your headlights off?"

"They won't work." The boy smirked.

"Mind if I test them out?"

He instantly frowned and glared at Nile. "You think I'm lying?! You can't make me do anything!"

By this time, Zeo and Toby had joined Nile, and were flanking him on either side, Zeo crossing his arms and glaring as hard as he could, and Toby simply standing with his serious face on.

"I do think you're lying. I think you know something." Nile leaned down close to the other guy's face. "There is something suspicious going on at that mansion, and there is something suspicious about you. I want to know what is going on, and I want to know now."

**MWM**

Damian chuckled to himself as he strode confidently down the hallway. Somewhere, he imagined his sister was in a state of panic. Due to her OCD, he knew she had probably already realized the security was having issues, and her freakishly bipolar personality would make her panic. She had good reason to panic anyway. He was in the house after all.

He passed an open door to a guard's room and paused. On the table was a small candle. He smiled and walked inside. The room was small and pretty shabby. There was a small bed and a kitchenette, along with a suitcase. The guards had to move a lot, so they rarely bothered to get very comfortable wherever they were. That much at least had not changed.

Chuckling evilly to himself, Damian took the five steps to the kitchenette and grabbed a stack of paper-towels, ripping one off and holding it over the flame until it caught fire too. The light danced in his eyes, and he stared at it for a few seconds before placing it on the bed. It didn't take long for the blanket to catch fire.

He laughed crazily as he lit another paper-towel. Arson always made things double in fun. Or at least, that's what he thought.

**_A/N Thank you to my loyal readers and commenters! You make me happy. :D And you give me reason to update faster. Or at least to try to._**


	20. Through the halls

Diana stalked down the hallway. It was unacceptable. Absolutely completely horrible. What were the idiots in the security room thinking?! It was a major breach of protocol for them to turn off the security cameras. How dare they do something so against the rules as deactivating any of the security tools without asking her! Her word was law, and doing serious things like that without asking her first was completely unacceptable.

By the time she reached the correct staircase, a dark aura was practically pouring out of her. She was also pushing back the small feeling that maybe something was wrong and it wasn't just the security guards messing with her or slacking off. Being angry was better than being worried, and she was in the mood to punish people anyway.

She had only just reached the newer section of the building when she realized that the halls were entirely too empty. It wasn't surprising in the house section, but in this section, the section built specifically for shady deeds, guards were supposed to patrol all of the hallways in three minute loops. She had been in the same, long hallway for five minutes and no guards had appeared. Once again, she began to worry that something was wrong. What other explanation could there be for the absence of guards and the security cameras being off?

Swallowing and making an attempt to calm her flaring emotions, Diana doubled her pace and continued on towards the security room.

WMW

Madoka stopped moving and held her head tilted upwards. Gingka gave her a look.

"Why did you stop?" Tsubasa heard Gingka's question and paused, turning around and causing a yelp and a loud protest from Masamune. Yu stopped beside Madoka, seeming glad for a break. Everyone looked at Madoka expectantly.

"I think… I think I might smell something."

Tsubasa narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose, attempting to analyze the smell. It was a bit musty and smelled a bit like cleaner and smoke. It hadn't smelled like smoke before, or he hadn't noticed it at least.

"It does kinda stink," Yu spoke up first.

"It smells like mold," Masamune said, matter-of-factly.

"I think it smells like cleaner." There was no way Gingka wasn't going to get some sort of word in.

"You're all right, but I smell smoke too." Tsubasa, the unofficial leader of this expedition, settled it before it was turned into another tiny fight. Pain apparently was no sort of deterent for fighting when it came to Gingka, Masamune, and Yu.

"That must mean something is on fire," Madoka worried quietly, looking around and behind her.

"We need to keep going." Tsubasa was feeling very grim now. They were lost and could be found by people they didn't want to find them at any second, they had run into several dead ends and locked doors, and now something was apparently on fire. Team Gan Gan Galaxy had been unlucky ever since the doors of their cells opened. But at least they now had a chance. Tsubasa considered it his responsibility, as the least injured, the oldest, and the most experienced in this sort of thing, to make sure that all of the others got out safely. He would do whatever it took.

MWM

The security room was a complete mess. Diana was expressing her anger by kicking chairs over and flinging coffee cups as she cursed at all of the absent guards. Not a single one remained in the room. If she ever got her hands on them, they were dead. Most of the security machines had been destroyed too. She couldn't relock any doors, turn the security cameras back on, or reengage any of the traps. There were no other options left. She was forced to realize what she had been anxiously skirting around, trying to ignore, trying to deny. It was Damian. That was the only possibility.

She cursed again, and stomped quickly out of the room. There was a rat around somewhere, and he needed to be exterminated.

WMW

Damian was waiting. She knew by now, no doubt. He'd wrecked all of the security devices and set a fire. Knowing how paranoid his sister was, she had probably figured it out not long after he'd gotten in. He had placed himself in the middle of the largest lounge in the house, a room that resembled a ballroom, it just had a much shorter ceiling than typical in that sort of room. There were huge, ornate beams everywhere, and gigantic and heavy oak doors on either side. A perfect room to battle in. And he thought she would find him quickly. Their minds worked fairly alike, he figured she'd find him in a few minutes.

He was right.

The doors at the back end of the room banged open, and let in a thick stream of smoke before they were closed again. Diana, dressed in a thin nightgown, her hair still wild from bed, stomped into the room, her bey ready to launch.

"You! I knew it! You little rat! You've tried to ruin my life since the moment you were conceived!"

"Have I succeeded?" Damian asked innocently, his own bey at the ready, then laughed at the rage on Diana's face. "I'll take that as a yes!"

"I'm going to kill you!" she screamed, launching her bey at him, he barely managed to jump out of the way before launching his own bey. Diana had an incredible launch strength but after that she was only average. This would barely be a fight at all. The beys circled each other and connected a few times before Diana's went racing around the room, going around the pillars in an insane zigzag pattern. Damian stared at it, slightly confused, then just laughed and pursued it the best he could. Diana's mind was apparently more distracted than he thought.

The beys were just about to connect again when something large and heavy slammed into Damian and sent him sprawling on the floor. He wriggled and wormed in a sad attempt to get out from under whatever it was, but it was holding him. He noticed that his own bey was sagging around in a strange pattern now. That must have been why Diana's had been doing that; because she was focusing more on sneaking behind him than controlling her bey.

He finally managed to edge his way out from under her and gasped before spinning around and kicking her in the face. She screeched and attempted to jump on him again, but missed. Instead, she grabbed his leg as he tried to get up and yanked him to the ground before attempting to scratch him up badly. In response, Damian grabbed her arms and tried to bite her, but she ducked out of the way.

Both beys fell limply to their sides as their owners rolled around on the floor, doing their best to kill each other.

MWM

Gan Gan Galaxy turned into a hallway with a slightly ajar door at the end, being pushed along by the very threatening smell of smoke. it was thick enough now that they could actually see it up around the ceiling. Tsubasa pushed the large metal door open, hoping for some luck. So far, they had only ran into more cells or what looked like barracks.

This room was different, to Tsubasa's great relief. There were electronics all over the walls, and big screens too. Most of them were not on. Just like the badly flickering lights in the hallway, the power in this room seemed to be being affected by the fire. The few electronics that did seem to be running well looked like they were hooked up to a generator of some kind. Tsubasa noted grimly that there were quite a few machines that had had their wires ripped out and had basically been gutted. This particular damage obviously had nothing to do with the fire, and Tsubasa was beginning to realize that they were able to escape so far because of someone else's sabotage. Whether this someone else was a friend or enemy he didn't know, but whoever they were, they had given him and his friends a chance to escape. He would not waste it.

Madoka took one look around the room. "I bet there's some sort of floor plan in one of these machines that we can use to find our way out!"

"Yeah," Tsubasa agreed, eyeing Yu-who had made his way to the nearest machine with its insides hanging out and was looking like he might touch it. "If the computer with that sort of thing hasn't been destroyed. Don't touch that wire Yu!"

"Only an idiot would want to touch a wire like that," Gingka snorted. Yu made a face at him and crossed his arms.

"Huh?" Masamune said, stopping his reaching for the nearest wire.

"See?"

"I'm not an idiot!"

"Oh yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

"Shut up and let me concentrate!" Madoka yelled, dropping Gingka (who yelped on contact) unceremoniously to the floor and moving to look closely at the machines.

"I think it would probably be on this terminal," she finally said, straightening up and pointing to one in the center. "From the information on the screen, this computer is solely for storing data, so it seems likely."

"Well then what are you waiting for? Find the map so we can get out of here!" Masamune was being placed on the floor gently as he spoke. The smell of smoke was getting ever stronger, and not even he could help but worry a little.

Madoka glared at him before getting to work on the -luckily- not damaged computer, and within moments she had a map up. Tsubasa scooted up next to her with Yu behind him yelling about wanting to see.

Tsubasa frowned, not liking what he saw. The building seemed to have two different sections divided between three floors. The two main floors looked like they were normal in material and structure, and he was sure they hadn't been on those floors. The bottom floor, the one they were on, seemed to have walls made of concrete, and had strange conglomerations of small rooms, then rooms of larger sizes and one extremely large room. Madoka clicked on the bottom floor, and the map rotated and zoomed in a bit, and the first two floors disappeared, giving a clear view of the floor they were on which was labeled level zero. Immediately Taubasa noticed orange spreading down several hallways, and it only took a second to realize that this electronic map was showing fire.

The fire had apparently already consumed almost half of the floor they were on, including the cells they had been living in. The walls were concrete but the floors were unfortunately carpet, most likely to give a teensy bit of comfort to the guards living on level zero. This made a perfect path for the fire to burn through all of the hallways in their ant tunnel-maze, and devour everything in every room, and everyone left inside.

"There!" Madoka cried, pointing out a staircase that was away from the fire. The only exit on this floor was blocked by fire, so the only option left was to head up. Tsubasa decided on a path to get to the stairs and memorized it quickly, then flipped to level one. The only exit here was the front door, and the fire was already disturbingly close to that and their staircase was on the other side of the mansion. He moved the map to level three. There was only one exit here, and it went onto the roof. That would be the last resort.

"Come on guys," Tsubasa said, walking towards Masamune, who raised his arms up like a baby reaching for his mommy. Tsubasa pulled him up and walked towards the door as Madoka did the same with Gingka-who reached for her like a baby just like Masamune had.

Tsubasa opened the door and took a deep breath. There was smoke over here too. The fire was spreading rapidly. He hoped they could get out before it caught them.


	21. Let it Burn

"Get back here you little coward!" Diana screamed, flinging herself after Damian. Her leg was hurt fairly badly, and it slowed her down a lot, but she had managed to give Damian a few good whacks in the head, and he was stumbling more than a little bit. She paused on her climb up the stairs to wipe the sweat out of her eyes, then continued pulling herself up by the rail. Damian was entering the hallway at the top, but there was no way she'd let him escape.

"T-Try to catch me, slowpoke!" Damian yelled back at her, as he tripped his way into the hallway. He was very disoriented. Diana knew that would be her big advantage. He'd scratched and bit up her arms very badly, and she was decently sure her leg was broken too, but Damian could barely stand upright.

By the time she entered the hallway, Damian was close to the other end, steadying himself on the walls. The smell of smoke was heavy, but Diana ignored it. She lunged then dragged her lame leg behind her in an awkward limp. It was slow, but she was gaining on her little brother, and that's all that mattered. "I'm going to kill you, you little worm!"

Damian either didn't hear her or didn't bother responding as he turned the corner. He was gaining speed, but so was she. She could ignore the pain; all she had to do was figure out how to move. This was her sole purpose for living. It was now or never, she knew. There wouldn't be another chance to kill him after this night. And there was no way she wouldn't fulfill her only desire, even if it meant her life.

**MWM**

"This is haaaard," Masamune whined loudly as Tsubasa dragged him up the stairs. Dragged wasn't an exaggeration either. Masamune mostly refused to help, so it was basically up to Tsubasa to get them both up the stairs. Luckily, Gingka was working a little harder (he was complaining just as loudly though), so Madoka was actually able to get him up the stairs on her own, albeit very slowly. Yu on the other hand, crawled up the stairs at a painfully slow pace, going one stair at a time. The stairs were unfortunately steep, and his small, short legs didn't lend themselves well to getting him up them. It would have been difficult even if he hadn't been injured. And to make it worse, the stairs were hard, plain concrete, and were scraping his knees and he went. So Yu's voice joined in the chorus of complaining.

Once he reached the top of the stairs, Tsubasa propped Masamune against the wall and practically threw himself back down the stairs, barely squeezing by Madoka and Gingka without knocking them over. Yu was much lighter than Masamune, and Tsubasa yanked him up and ran back up the stairs, mentally apologizing to Yu over the rough treatment. He knew he was hurting him, but there wasn't time to be gentle, or slow. Yu would have to forgive him later. At least he'd be alive.

He sat Yu on the landing, being slightly more gentle than he had been while flying up the stairs, and picked Masamune back up. He was beginning to wish he could just pick everyone up and run. They were moving far too slow. It was driving him crazy. He knew the three couldn't help it, but that knowledge didn't help to quench the desperation and impatience growing in him. If they didn't hurry, they'd all die in this house of horror.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door, and stared into the hallway that met him with wide eyes.

"That's hot!" Masamune yelled, squirming on Tsubasa's shoulder.

"Tsubasa, what are we going to do?" Madoka asked in a quiet voice. Tsubasa heard her, but he didn't take his eyes away from the fire in the hallway. It wasn't huge, it was just licking at the edges of the wall, but it was enough to worry Tsubasa. If the fire was already like this here, how long would it take for the entire house to burn?

"There's only one thing we can do; keep going." With that, he steeled himself, and walked into the hall, hoping that it wasn't too late already.

**WMW**

Nile growled frustratedly at the door and slammed his hand into the wall. It was his job to rescue his fellow blader, Kyoya had entrusted it to him, and he was failing! Somewhere in there was Gingka, Tsubasa, Masamune, Yu, and Madoka (the man in the car, Jake, had told him so), and this door was stopping him from getting to them. And to top off all of the bad situations of the night, there was a fire in the house, and there was no cell service. He spit a curse and slammed his foot into the door for the five hundredth time. It was futile. The giant wooden door wasn't going to budge. He was just considering throwing rocks at the nearest, lowest window (which was on the second floor), when Toby came back around the side of the house.

"Well?" Nile said, trying not to sound too hopeful.

"There's no way in on this side. Any luck with the door?" Toby came and stood next to him, surveying the door himself.

"No." He muttered flatly. They couldn't have made it all this way only to fail now. Each delay left a higher possibility of their comrades' deaths. They didn't have time to go back to the town and get help now! Not with this building on fire. The driver had taken Jake and gone to town, but it would probably be far too late before he got back, judging on how bright the light coming from it was getting. The door was proving just how strong it was too, since it wouldn't budge despite the glow coming from the cracks around it. He might have been impressed if he wasn't so peeved.

Zeo came around the other side a few minutes after Toby, and they both gave him hopeful looks. He shook his head. "I saw one way that we might have been able to get in, but there's a ton of smoke coming through it." Zeo joined the other two bladers in glaring at the door. It looked like they were going to have to wait for the fire to weaken it enough to break it down. Hopefully it wouldn't already be too late by then, because there was no other choice. It wasn't like anyone was about to open the door for them.

There was a loud, slow groan as the door began to open. Nile, Toby, and Zeo couldn't manage to do anything but stare at it. When it opened enough for a person to squeeze through it stopped moving, and they watched it expectantly, waiting for whoever was behind it to come out. For a few moments, nothing besides smoke came out, but then, a familiar blue haired head appeared.

"Damien?!" All three boys cried in unison, gaping at him in disbelief.

Damien gave a start, and acted like he was considering going back inside the building before Zeo grabbed him. "No you don't!" he yelled, as he yanked Damian into the open air.

**MWM**

Diana watched from the top of the stairs as her younger brother was bodily pulled out of the house. Screaming a curse at his rescuers, she turned and threw herself into the hallway. She was so angry she almost forgot about her injured leg, and was managing a slow limping walk. The anger burning in her pushed her without reason, making her limp as quickly as she could down the hallway. She had no purpose or direction. He was gone. Her reason for living, unfulfilled. It never would be. She would die without accomplishing her one goal.

Her limping step began to slow as her anger faded into sorrow, and from there she dropped into depression. What was left for her? There had never been a single person that cared about her for as long as she had lived. How could she stand to live now? No one to live for, no thing to live for, no goal to live for. Her very existence was purposeless, reasonless.

The ballroom was ablaze, the ceiling beams cracking and groaning with the burden of the top floor. It wouldn't hold long. Smoke stung her eyes, and the heat burned her arms as she descended the ballroom stairs and stood in the once beautiful room. This was it for her, she realized. She would die here, and be happier for it. There had never been any joy in her life, so she wasn't going to miss living. In fact, she would probably enjoy death more than she ever had life.

**WMW**

"It isn't much farther!" Tsubasa cried victoriously. The fire was smothering the walls around them, and the smoke made it almost impossible to breath. Even the complaining had stopped. The effort to escape needed everyone's complete focus. At some point, Tsubasa had gotten Yu and put him on his back, so all Yu needed to do was hang on. He was too slow, and not strong enough to keep up. The adrenaline was more than enough to speed up both Masamune and Gingka, and their will strength was enormous.

Tsubasa coughed then continued. "We only have to," he paused to cough again, "get through this room, and another hallway!" No one responded, but Tsubasa was fairly certain he heard something akin to a grunt of joy from everyone in the midst of their coughing.

The door caved in easily when he kicked it. In fact, he barely kicked it at all. The burnt wood required little force to destroy. He ran into the room beyond, carrying Yu and partially dragging Masamune. It was a large room that was very much in flames, from the once majestic pillars to the once grand beams on the ceiling, to the large, once ornate staircase on the other end of the room. And in the middle of the room stood Diana. She hadn't spotted them yet, but that didn't keep Tsubasa's heart from dropping to his stomach. He was much too exhausted for this.

Diana stood silently in the middle of the room, her eyes looking around it with an eerily empty look. Tsubasa seized the moment to scan the room, and immediately saw what he was looking for. A door to the left. It would lead them to another exit.

"No way!" Gingka yelled as he spotted Diana. Tsubasa mentally cursed as she turned her lifeless eyes on the group. For a second, his gaze locked with hers, and he watched as a tiny spark of fire returned to them.

"I see you escaped," she said, reaching for something on the floor.

"Yeah! You can't stop us!" Masamune yelled, leaning off of Tsubasa more. "We're Gan Gan Galaxy, and way better than you'll ever be!"

"Yeah!" Yu echoed loudly, making Tsubasa cringe as it rang down his ears.

"Who says I haven't stopped you already?" she took a step towards them and leveled something in their direction. It took Tsubasa a second to realize that it was her bey launcher. Normally he wouldn't be worried, but he'd seen what she could do with that bey. He'd seen it rip through a grown man. The wheels began to slowly turn in his head. The chances weren't great. The others were very injured. But it was the only chance.

"Madoka, listen," Madoka edged a bit closer and stood next to Tsubasa.

"What is it?" she asked, keeping her voice low.

"Do you remember the route to the roof through that door?" he gestured very slightly with his head towards the door on the left.

"I think so." She gave him a confused look. "Why?"

"You're going to have to lead the others out. I'll stay here and distract her and join you when the time is right."

"But Tsubasa! She'll kill you!"

"I can handle her. I need you to keep the others safe."

"No way! We won't leave you here, Tsubasa!" Gingka yelled, letting go of Madoka and standing on his own, trembling legs.

"If you stay we'll all definitely die." Tsubasa took as deep of a breath as the smoke would allow and gave Gingka his most reassuring, most confident look. "I am the only one who stands a chance of getting out of here alive. I've survived more than this before. If you don't leave, all of us will die. I think I can get out, but you need to go, now!" Tsubasa sat Yu on the ground, and passed Masamune to Madoka.

Gingka looked as if he was going to argue more, but didn't seem to find the words to say. After a pause and some coughs, Gingka looked Tsubasa in the eye. "You better stay alive, buddy." Tsubasa nodded gratefully, giving Gingka a smile.

"I won't leave you Tsubasa!" Yu yelled, grabbing onto Tsubasa's leg. Tsubasa looked down at him and sighed, then kneeled down and wrapped his arms around Yu's small body.

"Yu, I'll be fine." Tsubasa put his hand on Yu's face and wiped away his tears with his thumb. "Don't cry, I'll see you again soon. I promise."

"Y-You better! I won't f-forgive you if you're l-lying!" Yu yelled, yanking back. Tsubasa stared into Yu's crying face for a few moments, feeling as if his heart would crack. Suddenly, Yu launched himself at Tsubasa, squeezing him tightly. Tsubasa returned the gesture. "I love you Tsubasa," Yu sniffled, then let go and ran to the door.

"We'll be waiting," Madoka called, as she pulled the door open.

"Good luck!" Masamune called back over his shoulder as Madoka hauled him through the door.

"Don't die you jerk!" Yu cried, following Madoka and Masamune, and still crying.

"Be safe, Tsubasa!" Gingka stopped in the doorway and nodded at him, then shut the door.

Tsubasa gave a last, longing look at the door, then returned his attention to Diana. She had dropped her launcher to her side and was examining him.

"You realize if you don't leave now, you have no hope of escape." She seemed to be asking a question and making a statement at the same time.

"I do." Tsubasa coughed into his hand, and wiped some of the soot off of his face, trying to ignore the groaning beams above him. The ceiling would start falling in at any moment.

"And yet, you're still here." She took a few steps closer, and Tsubasa noticed she was limping badly. In fact, she looked very beaten up.

"I am." He wished he had his bey right then. He felt naked and unprotected without it, especially with her holding her launcher in a vice grip.

"You aren't going to run?" It seemed she was genuinely surprised. He chuckled, then regretted it as they turned into coughs.

"No, I'm not going to run."

It was her turn to cough. "Why not? What are you going to gain by standing here?"

"Nothing. I won't gain anything, but it should get my friends enough time to escape."

"You… You would stay here and die, just so your friends can survive? Why? What in the world could make you want to do that?"

The first beam crashed into the ground, sending splinters of wood in every direction, but neither of them moved. "Because, it's what friends do. It's what it means to be a friend. I love each and every one of them, and if I have to sacrifice my life so that they can live, then so be it. I'll do it. It's a small price to pay."

"It's the meaning of friendship?" she looked at the bey in her hand and chuckled harshly, her voice strained by the heavy smoke. "I wish I knew what that was."

Tsubasa stared at her, actually feeling sorry for her. She was getting what she deserved, but what would have happened differently with her if she had had someone who cared? He couldn't say, but he somehow doubted he would be here, in this burning building. Another beam crashed to the ground, crushing the stairs behind Diana, but once again, she barely seemed to notice. Her eyes were hard.

"I didn't want to die alone. If you try to leave me, I'll kill you. We're going to die tonight, here, together, no matter what. You realize that, don't you?"

"I do," Tsubasa said, fighting to keep his resolve. Everything in his body screamed for him to run, to escape, to live. But he had made his decision. Even if he wanted to, he knew he couldn't change it. There was no way he could escape. Not now. He only wished he could see eagle again, before he died.

**MWM**

"Come on guys, we have to move quickly!" Madoka screamed, doing her best to pull herself and Masamune up the staircase. They were almost out, almost free! They just had to get down two hallways and they would be at the staircase that led to the roof. What worried her was the floor. Fire was licking the walls, even up here. It would collapse, and they would all fall to a fiery death if they didn't make it in time.

"But how are we going to get off the roof?" Gingka yelled, limping as quickly as he could manage after her. The adrenaline was pumping in everyone, pushing them to their limits and making them move much quicker.

"We'll have to figure that out when we get there!" She cried, turning into the second hallway. The floor felt like it was going to fall through if they stepped on it too hard.

"Is that it?!" Masamune yelled over the roaring fire beneath them, pointing to a door at the end of the hallway.

"I think so!" Madoka cried, relief filling her. She released Masamune as she got closer, and grabbed the doorknob with a shaky hand, begging God for it to be unlocked. Her prayers were answered. The knob turned easily, and the door swung open, letting in a burst of fresh air. And above the sound of the house slowly falling in on itself, and the sounds of the fire burning, she heard something else. Something familiar, something mechanical.

"Helicopter!" Gingka threw himself into the open air of the roof. When he looked up, he saw exactly that: a large helicopter, hovering close to the burning roof top.

"Hey, we're here!" Masamune screamed, joining Gingka on the roof and flailing his arms around. He was joined quickly by Gingka and Madoka. Yu however, stood silently at the door, looking down into the burning hallway, scanning it desperately, hoping that he would see Tsubasa running up it, towards him, towards safety.

"Gingka!" A familiar, green haired boy's head appeared from the helicopter's door. "Wait just a second! I'll get you out!" After a few seconds, a rope ladder fell from the copter. "Can you climb?!"

"I can, but I don't know about the others!" Gingka looked at the others. He could do anything; he would do what it took to survive, and to help his friends survive. It didn't matter if he physically could or couldn't, he would do it anyway.

"Then climb! We'll get the others after!"

Gingka got on the ladder and climbed the first set of rungs before Masamune grabbed him. "I can climb too! Stop trying to be tough and leave the rest of us behind!"

"This isn't a great time, stupid!" Gingka yelled, feeling his stomach lurch as the helicopter moved. His arms and legs were already killing him. Masamune let go, and he continued up. He suddenly realized that the ladder was moving up as he climbed. The second he was close enough to reach for the helicopter, he did, and hands grabbed his arm at the same time, and he was pulled up and in. It was a pretty small little helicopter with a few seats. Kyoya and the woman (he couldn't remember her name) were in there, with her flying the machine.

"You have to get in there!" he choked out, as they lowered the ladder and Masamune got on. "Tsubasa is still inside!"

"What?!" Kyoya yelled, looking down at the building. "Why is he still in there?!"

"He… He stayed so we could get out. He's on the main floor."

Kyoya turned and yanked up Masamune, then dropped the ladder again. He looked at the building for a long minute.

"You can't," the woman said, without looking. "We'll be doing good to get the girl and the kid. If we have time after that, I will try to get him out."

"No!" Gingka yelled, getting close to her. "You have to! You have to go get him! Please! He's my friend! I can't leave him!" Gingka sank into a coughing fit, trying not to cry as he began to lose his last hope for his Tsubasa.

"I'm sorry, Gingka," she said, not looking at him. Gingka squeezed his eyes closed. This could not be happening.

**WMW**

"I read a book once… or a piece of a book. I haven't thought about it in years." Diana kept her stare on Tsubasa, not lowering her launcher at all.

Tsubasa looked at her, not moving. He had reconciled himself to his fate, and he didn't mind that much anymore. He was having a really hard time breathing. In truth, he was beginning to hope he would die soon. The heat was almost unbearable, and his chest burned and screamed in pain with each attempt to pull in air.

"It said something like no one has greater love than to die for his friend. Do you really love them that much? Are you really that special, that you're one of the greatest lovers in the world?" Her tone had a slightly mocking sound to it, but Tsubasa didn't mind.

"It's not me. It's them. They're the great ones. I was just lucky to have them consider me their friend."

After that Diana snorted, and said nothing, but there were two, thin, clean streaks on her face amidst the soot that stained it.

It happened very suddenly. One of the large beams cracked in half, and Diana was crushed and swept into the flame. Tsubasa stared with round eyes. It had happened in barely a second. She was dead. Gone. And she probably hadn't even had time to realize what had happened before she died. Tsubasa wondered if he would go the same way. Would he die abruptly? Would he be crushed? Would he burn to death? Or would he die before any of that could happen, by suffocating in the smoke?

Slowly, he sat down, focusing on each breath. The ceiling wouldn't last much longer. He looked towards the door. A beam was in front of it. The stairs were gone. Even if he tried now, there was no way out of the room. He noticed his vision was beginning to blur.

"This is it," he wheezed to himself, as he slowly lay down, fighting to make his lungs work. It hurt terribly badly, and even the panicky feeling of being unable to draw breath was beginning to fade. The fire blurred into one large, glowing mass, and he could hear the ceiling giving one last, long groan.

"Goodbye," he managed to whisper, blacking out just as the ceiling caved in.

_**A/N Sorry for the long wait again! But this one is almost twice as long as usual at least. I went on month long trip, graduated, and start college next week! Stay tuned for the final chapter! And that bit where Yu said he loved Tsubasa? Yeah, I meant that in the purest way. Like, brotherly love. And thank you so much to those who review after it's been a long time since an update. You spur me into motion every time. Seriously, I know I would've given this story up a long time ago if it weren't for you.**_


	22. Life or Death

It was dark. Again. Why did it always seem to be dark? Actually, Tsubasa realized, it wasn't totally dark. There was a strange, orange glow on the top and bottom edges of his view. He blinked, wondering if maybe that would help his vision, but it changed nothing.

It surprised him that he was thinking so rationally. He wasn't even alarmed at the strange lack of sight. He couldn't remember exactly what happened, nor did he now where he was. But this didn't bother him either. And that was the only thing that almost bothered him; the fact that nothing was bothering him, despite all of the unknowns. He should be bothered, worried at least. Actually he should have been panicking, but he wasn't. There must be something seriously wrong with him.

Since he couldn't see anything and it didn't seem like that was going to change, he listened instead. There was a roaring sound, accompanied by occasional loud pops and crackling sounds and groaning. Actually it sounded like a building was on fire and struggling to continue standing. Something nagged at his mind then, pulling him towards a memory. A girl with blue hair, suddenly gone. Falling beams from a ceiling. Lungs screaming in pain. But he dismissed these, partially because it made him feel panicked and partially because his brain didn't want to focus on it. They slipped away, not forgotten, but temporarily ignored.

That's when he heard something else. Voices. Very dim, hard to hear. There were at least five, maybe more, but two of them seemed to be closer. Tsubasa struggled to hear over the roar of the fire.

"He's mine I tell you. There's no possibility of survival," one voice said, raising only slightly.

"No!" This voice was more forceful. "People are on the way! He can still be saved! I won't allow you to take him yet!"

At this a feeling welled up in him, stronger than any feeling he had had since waking up; curiosity. What were they talking about? Was it him? He felt sure it was. It was then he knew he had to figure out what happened, even though the more he thought about trying the less he wanted to. Nothing about his situation boded well.

He calmed himself, glad to be beginning to feel worried again, and focused on the pieces of memories that had came to him with the thought of fire. Slowly but surely, the memories flowed back, starting with their capture, finally reaching the realization of who Diana was and why she had captured them, and ending with her death. The last thing he remembered was lying on the floor, struggling to breathe, and seeing something dark and heavy falling towards him from the corner of his eye right before passing out. But was he alive? Still in the house? Nothing made sense.

The voices were still talking, getting more passionate with every passing second. The other voices were getting louder now too, though. They were yelling to each other as well, not arguing, but sounding desperate. Tsubasa now realized that what was blocking his vision was a beam from the ceiling. What he didn't understand was why he didn't feel it. When he had woken up, he turned his face so that it was pointed upwards instead of sideways, and there had been no resistance. He hadn't even touched it. And yet it was lying right on top of his face. It was then that a horrible idea occurred to Tsubasa.

Steeling himself, he sat up, and went right through the beam. It was as if it wasn't even there. Or maybe, it was Tsubasa that wasn't there.

He didn't dare look back. He didn't want to see what lay where he had been. Instead he looked for the source of the arguing voices, wondering who-or what-would be in the middle of a flaming building. What he saw was not at all what he was expecting. Two people stood in the middle of the flames, acting as if they weren't there at all, and the fire didn't seem to realize their presence either as it didn't have the least effect on them. One was black and one was white, though each had a fair amount of the other color on them. They were tall and intimidating, and Tsubasa couldn't even determine whether they were men or women. Even their voices concealed their gender, sounding like an echoey mix of both male and female. Their clothes almost seemed to float on the air.

Another sound pulled Tsubasa's attention from the two men to the stairs, or what remained of them. Four people, four familiar people, were braving the fire. One threw a rope ladder down and another instantly started climbing down it, but one of them lept right down from the higher floor to the floor Tsubasa was currently on, and both boys started heading his way. But they all seemed to be moving in slow motion. It would have been comical if Tsubasa hadn't been feeling so grave.

At this point the strange looking people turned to face him, startling him.

"Who are you?" he asked, before either of them had time to speak.

The lighter one was about to say something when the darker one interrupted. "That isn't your concern. All you need know is that you are on the brink of death, and currently not possessing your body. I am here to take you to the next world."

"And I'm here to keep you alive," the light one butted in quickly, shooting the other a glare.

For some reason it didn't surprise Tsubasa. Perhaps it was the weariness that dulled his feelings. He hadn't really noticed it that much before, but now that he had stood he realized he felt so exhausted that the thought of death wasn't really that terrifying. In fact, it was almost a pleasant thought. He wouldn't have to struggle any more if he died. He had never been this tired before. Maybe it was because his spirit was out of his body. Maybe it had less energy or something. It didn't really matter though. All that mattered was that he was so exhausted that sinking into the arms of death sounded like a good idea.

"I'm going to die?" Tsubasa asked, almost surprised at the lack of emotion in the question.

"Not necessarily," the light one said.

"But it is probable," the dark one added. "You can come with me now if you wish. You can rest, stop fighting it. Have complete peace for the first time."

"You would have to leave this world, step into the unknown, abandon your friends and your life here. Even if you do not go with him, I cannot garuntee you will live, but I can garuntee you will at least have a chance. But it is your choice. Will you try to live?"

"Or will you come with me, and die?"

Tsubasa stared at the two, his emotions warring within him. As he looked into the eerie eyes of the dark one he heard an eagle's cry, and he knew what he would choose.

**WMW**

Kyoya grunted angrily, feeling the fire as it continued burning the beam as he and Toby got in place to move it. It was a large beam, but the fire had burnt a good bit of the weight out of it, which was both a good and bad thing. The smoke made it nearly impossible to breathe, even though they all had their shirts covering their faces to try to filter the air. He didn't know if Tsubasa was actually alive anymore or not, but he would die himself before leaving a friend who might be alive to die.

Both Kyoya and Toby yelled with effort as they strained to move the heavy piece of wood off of Tsubasa. Luckily, it hadn't landed straight on top of him; one side was on the ground, the other rested on a pile of debris that held it almost a foot off the ground. Both boys were trying to lift this side and move it far enough that they could drop it without completely crushing Tsubasa and removing any chance of his survival. It was tough. Kyoya wished he could have had Zeo or Nile helping him instead of Toby, who wasn't weak but wasn't as strong as them, but knew it was going to take both of them to pull him and his load back up.

The ceiling was still falling around them. Only a few beams remained above and Kyoya hoped that they would wait until they escaped to fall. If another came down while they were still in what was left of the room, he doubted they would survive it.

"I think" Toby paused to hack out a few coughs, "it's far enough!"

"Good!" Kyoya spit, choking down a few coughs of his own. "Drop it in three, two, one!" They released it together and it dropped to the ground with a burst of splinters.

Without pausing to see if he was actually alive or even check his condition, Kyoya snatched up Tsubasa and threw him over his shoulder while Toby made for the ladder. He had already scrambled most of the way up by the time Kyoya reached it. The moment Toby pulled himself over the edge Kyoya jumped onto the ladder and instantly Zeo and Nile began pulling the ladder up.

There was a loud crash and a splintering sound behind Kyoya as Zeo pulled Tsubasa up and Nile gave him a hand up. Without even looking back he realized that they had just had a very narrow escape. If that beam had fallen while they were down there all three of them would definitely be dead.

The group ran back through the rubble of the falling building, dodging falling pieces of ceiling and jumping over burning piles. They practically flew, trying desperately to get out before anyone else was injured.

They burst through the doors and took gulps of the fresh, cool night air, gasping and coughing and covered in soot, but uninjured. Kyoya helped Zeo put Tsubasa on the ground as gently as possible, then stood back and surveyed the damage as Saiyo ran over, barking orders at Gan Gan Galaxy to not move. It wasn't good. Tsubasa was burnt pretty badly in several places and had countless cuts and bruises, even in the dim light. But the worst thing was his head. Kyoya couldn't see it very well, but the dark blood matting his white hair and covering his face was evidence enough of the severity of the injury.

Saiyo looked over him, her eyes darting from one injury to another, the erie glow of the fire giving her face a grim cast. "We can't afford to wait for another helicopter. We'll have to break procedure if we want to save him."

She motioned at the four boys, not taking her gun off of Damien, who she help by the arm. "Pick him up. Be as careful as possiblr and one of you hold his head. Try to keep him flat if you can."

Kyoya and Zeo placed themselves on either side of his torso while Nile dealt with his legs and Toby held his head gently. On Kyoya's count of three they lifted and crab-walked their way to the helicopter. Kyoya noted that Tsubasa seemed much longer carrying him like that.

Being as careful as they could with the adrenaline coursing through their veins, they put Tsubasa on the floor. The seats had been removed from the helicopter and it was considerably larger now. The others had, against their will, been shipped out moments before in the other helicopter, flown by the pilot. They had been making quite a fuss but Saiyo would have none of it. She had been angry that she would be keeping a prisoner, but decided that it would be better to take him in her helicopter with a few able bodied boys instead of with the other pilot, two injured boys, a little injured boy, and an injured girl.

Kyoya sat against the wall, glaring with all the hatred he could muster at Damien. Zeo had happily taken the job of watching the prisoner (ie. sitting and pointing a gun at him) while Nile sat silently on the wall opposite Kyoya, looking at nothing in particular. Toby sat, drenched in Tsubasa's blood, looking very solemn and very pale. The helicopter took off with a jerk and they were airborn, heading towards the nearest hospital capable of dealing with major injuries.

Suddenly, Toby took off his bloodstained, soot covered shirt and put it on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Zeo asked, watching Toby but keeping the gun on Damien, who sat against the wall with his eyes closed, not looking interested in escaping anyway.

"I'm going to try to stop or at least slow his bleeding. We can't just do nothing and watch him die while we try to reach a hospital." Carefully, he lifted Tsubasa's head and slid his shirt underneath it. Then he attempted to tie it around his injuries, though he couldn't really tell where they were because of the blood. Within moments, the shirt was completely soaked in blood. Kyoya couldn't tell if the makeshift bandage was doing any good, but it couldn't be making the situation any worse.

Without a word, he took off his own shirt and used it to bandage a larger wound on his friend's leg. It didn't take long for the other boys to follow suit. Unfortunately, the shirt-turned-bandages didn't improve the looks of Tsubasa's injuries at all. In fact, in the slight light of the helicopter, he looked worse than any of them had seen him, even after the Ryuga and darkness incidents.

Kyoya shook his head and chose to look out the window instead. He gave Tsubasa one more glance then turned his gaze back to the sky. He hoped Tsubasa would survive, however slight the chances were.

**MWM**

It was still dark. Of course. He realized it was because his eyes were closed this time. But for some odd reason he couldn't remember how to open them, couldn't really remember much of anything. Nothing seemed to exist in his head except for the dim impression of lights passing continuously overhead, the sound of frantic, unintelligible voices yelling to each other and to him (which made his head hurt even worse), and the excruciating pain that spread throughout his body. Slowly, everything faded again, and all was silent.

**WMW**

This time when he opened his eyes, it was not dark. In fact, it was light. Very light. Actually, it was so bright and so white, he immediately closed his eyes and blocked the small crack of light that had so dramatically affected his vision and head.

Tentatively, he tried again, slowly opening one eye and then the other. He could barely manage it. It felt like the weight of his eyelids had tripled over night. Or at least since the last time he'd opened his eyes, since he had no recollection of how long it may have been since he'd last glimpsed the world outside his mind.

He groaned and shut his eyes again, still unable to focus on anything. Everything hurt too. Why did everything hurt so much? Especially his head. It felt as if someone had ran over his head with an eighteen wheeler. And that constant beeping wasn't helping at all.

What had happened? He remembered the fire, remembered staying behind so the others could escape. He remembered searing pain in his lungs as he tried to breathe, and burning pain crawling up his arms and legs, which lingered even now. Vaguely he recalled hearing voices and seeing two strange men, but he knew that must have been a dream and dismissed it. What had happened? Nothing made sense, and his mind was too fuzzy to piece his memories together.

He released a small sigh from his burning lungs and willingly drifted back into darkness.

**MWM**

Yu sat quietly beside the window. It was evening, and the sun was slowly going down, casting shades of red, pink, and purple across the sky. It really was a nice view but he was having a hard time enjoying it. They were at a large hospital not too far from Seattle, Washington. It had been the nearest hospital that could handle severe burns like Tsubasa had. They had all arrived at the hospital and instantly rushed in.

All of them had been treated and were on a quick road to recovery except for Tsubasa. He had been unconscious for over a week, and at first the doctors hadn't actually been sure if he'd survive, and said if he did, there was a chance he wouldn't walk again, and an even bigger chance of brain damage. At first Yu had stubbornly refused to believe them, but as more days passed he found himself losing hope.

The doctors now said Tsubasa had a good chance of living, and a good chance of walking again as well, but they really couldn't say anything about brain damage until he woke up. But Yu was having a hard time believing them. If Tsubasa was going to be okay, why hadn't he woke up yet?

"Please don't die, Tsubasa," he whispered, watching the sun set through tearful eyes.

**WMW**

Madoka sat quietly and watched Tsubasa's chest rise and fall. She doubted the others had noticed, but since the first few days had passed his breathing had gotten easier. It didn't look so much like breathing pained him anymore. This made her smile. Tsubasa was strong, he would be fine. Unlike the boys, she didn't mind taking her turn watching him. She had the eye for detail that they didn't. Instead of anxiety and fear, she felt calm and assurance seeing him. He would be just fine, she knew it.

"Hey Tsubasa," she said quietly, leaning closer to his prone form, "Take all the time you need to recover. We'll all be here waiting when you get back."

**MWM**

It was midnight exactly. Gingka had been watching the clock for hours. He couldn't sleep. So instead, he just sat and stared at Tsubasa. He was team leader, he was supposed to protect his team, so why was it always Tsubasa in the hospital? Why did Tsubasa always end up being the one suffering? It wasn't right, and Gingka hated himself for it.

"I'm sorry I failed you Tsubasa. I'll make it all up to you, I swear!"

**WMW**

Masamune despised taking his turn. It was way too early in the should be asleep, not sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair! But he'd somehow ended up with the last night shift. The rest of the team would be back sometime before sunrise but that offered him little comfort. He wished he could lay out in the chair and get some more sleep, but the proximity of Tsubasa and the constant beeping of the machines monitoring his heart prevented that.

"Come on and wake up already Tsubasa! I can't believe you're making me worry! Stop being a jerk! Wake up!"

**MWM**

The sun was rising. He could feel it on his face. It was a good feeling. His arms and legs still burned, and his head hurt tremendously, but this time was definitely better than the others. His eyelids didn't feel so heavy either.

Tsubasa lay quietly with his eyes closed for a long time, piecing his memories together (a truly difficult thing to do when his head felt like it had been through a meat processor). He remembered it all now, all the way to when a beam fell on him. He remembered Diana's haunted eyes and sudden death, and despite all the pain she had caused him and his friends, he hoped she finally had peace.

As for himself, he didn't relish the idea looking at his limbs or a mirror any time soon. He realized he must be in a hospital, though frankly he was astonished that he was even alive. How had they gotten him out? And thinking of them...

Slowly Tsubasa opened his eyes and surveyed the room. They were all there. Madoka and Yu were watching the sun rise and Gingka and Masamuna were fighting over a chair, both squirming to take most of the seat and push the other out. To his surprise, Ryo was sitting calmly in the other chair, laughing a Gingka and Masamune fighting. Tsubasa wasn't fooled though. He could see the relief in Ryo's eyes, relief to see his son and all of Gan Gan Galaxy safe. A bit damaged, he noted, taking in the bandages that covered a good bit of Gingka and Masamune, but safe nonetheless.

Suddenly Ryo's eyes caught Tsubasa's and his eyes widened. The red haired man's mouth fell open slowly, then it moved into a wide smile.

"Tsubasa! It's good to see you're back!" Ryo stood, smiling and putting his hands on his hips. Tsubasa managed a weak smile as all motion in the room stilled, leaving Gingka and Masamune in an awkward position as they gawked at their friend.

"Tsubasa!" all the members of Gan Gan Galaxy cried at once, converging on him as Ryo watched and smiled.

"Tsubasa, Tsubasa! Please say you're okay!" Yu cried, jumping up onto the bed beside him, trying and failing to keep from crying.

"I knew you would be okay!" Madoka said, clasping her hands together and smiling widely.

"Yeah, Tsubasa! You're finally awake! You didn't have to take so long!" Masamune partially masked his relief with annoyance.

"I'm so happy you're okay, Tsubasa!" Gingka cried, standing next to Madoka and smiling as wide as his face could permit.

"I'm sorry I made you all worry," Tsubasa croaked, sending a wave of searing pain up his throat. "I'll be okay."

And when he said it, he knew without a doubt it was true. The overwhelming pain in his body screamed that he would not, but his heart and his mind told him he would. It would be a while before he would be back to his normal self, but he would get there eventually, and his friends would stand by him though the entire process, doing whatever they could to help. They were true friends. And true friends would always do what was best for each other, no matter the cost to theirselves.

After all, isn't that the true meaning of friendship?

_**A/N Wow. I am so, SO sorry it took me so long to update! I seriously have been promising myself for the last 4 months I would finish this story every weekend. But I finally did finish! I started college last fall, so I've been extremely busy, and I redecorated the youth room at my church over December, so I haven't really had time for anything. Special thanks to Guest who keeps on pushing me! Seriously, I love your reviews and they help motivate me to finish. I managed to finish this story in... less than 3... long... long years. So much in my life has changed since I started writing this story. **_

_**Originally, there was going to be a different ending for this story, but I decided I liked happy endings better. See, originally, Diana would survive and Tsubasa would die. I might write that as an alternate ending someday. I doubt it, but hey, it's possible.**_

_**Thank you to everyone who stuck with this story until the end! I'm so sorry it took so long, but I hoped you enjoyed it anyway!**_


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